December 17, 2010: 2 Peter 1-3
“The first living creature was like a lion, the second was like an ox, the third had a face like a man, the fourth was like a flying eagle. Each of the four living creatures had six wings and was covered with eyes all around, even under its wings. Day and night they never stop saying:
“‘Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,’ who was, and is, and is to come.”
Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:
“You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”” (Revelation 4:7-11)
I will be the first to admit… that I really struggle in trying to understand the book of Revelations. I have read it numerous times, I have heard sermons on it, and while I get the overall theme, it is very difficult for me to grasp because the imagery that is described is unlike anything on this earth. But even with my limited understanding, one thing that stuck out to me in these chapters was the worthiness of the Lord to receive our worship.
Repeatedly, there are descriptions of the creatures and angels and elders falling in worship, unable to stop describing how worthy He is, how great and how holy He is. There are these great creatures and angels who are falling all over themselves in heaven because they are just so in awe of God’s holiness, but when I thought about how different it is on earth, I almost felt a slight chill. There are churches all over that are cold, ceremonial, and where God is not viewed as though He is worthy of our worship, honor, and life, but more as He is lucky that we are sacrificing our time to come to church, or that He owes us a favor now that we have done something He wants us to do.
God doesn’t owe us anything, nor is He lucky when we deem to recognize Him for a few hours. As Revelations repeatedly describes, He is worthy of everything we have and more. Our best could never be good enough for God, in fact, nothing really is, because He is God. However, that doesn’t mean that we should stop trying– He deserves at least our best because He is worthy– the one who was and is and is to come– He is worthy.
