Dove Awards: Reverent WonderSample

Reverence: Dirt Road Redemption 

By: Zach Williams

If you’ve ever struggled with addiction of any kind and been healed by Jesus, you know a little about the reverence that comes from a second chance. You understand that God’s love is what busted off the chains that were impossible for you to escape from yourself.

What follows such a rescue is reverence to the One who made the impossible at last, possible. You know it was God’s hand alone that snatched you up from that path of that fast moving train.

The Apostle Paul’s life echoes the reverence that flows from redemption. 

You see, if not for God’s rescue, a man named Saul — whose mission was to persecute Christians —would likely have lived his whole life bound in the chains of hate and legalism. But one day on a quiet dirt road, the Lord spoke to Saul from heaven and everything changed. By no strength or power of his own, Saul was transformed mind, body, and spirit into the very repentant and reverent man we all have come to know and love as Paul the Apostle. 

Can you imagine the sound of the chains that came crashing to the ground that day? From that dirt road of redemption came a respect and reverence for God like no other. And, God would use that reverence in Paul to change the spiritual contour of the world then, and even now.

To have reverence for God is to stand in awe of Him for all that He has done to redeem us.  

How do we reignite our reverence for God in today’s world?

We stop to remember. Reverence rises in our hearts and minds when we remember how God delivered us personally on our dirt roads. After God delivered the Israelites from slavery, they became impatient on their desert journey to the Promised Land. They forgot the rescue and replaced their reverence of God with idols.

What "dirt road rescues" have you forgotten? What quiet, tender, transforming moments between you and Jesus have faded over time?

Think about these things. Write them down. Recall the details. Confess and clear out the things that have slowly blocked your sightline to the majesty and almightiness of God. Then, allow a pure reverence to begin rising up in your heart once more.  

Response: What big or small encounters with God have shaped and changed you? Thank Him. Give Him glory. Remember the rescue. Share your story with someone else. 

Scripture: Acts 9:1-22