Respectfully before God

'Ezra opened the book. All the people could see him because he was standing above them; and as he opened it, the people all stood up. Ezra praised the Lord, the Great God; and all the people lifted their hands and responded, 'Amen! Amen!' Then they bowed down and worshipped the Lord with their faces to the ground' - Nehemia 8:5-6.

What a novelty it would be in the life of modern people! To have to raise from their comfortable reclining positions, to have to glance away from their computer screens, to kneel in silence and worship, to 'praise the Lord... by night in the house of the Lord', in the words of Psalm 134:1.

When last did you lift your hands heavenwards in prayer and, all alone, praise the Lord with all your concentration focussed on Him?

If you want to (re)discover God, make an event of it as Ezra and the people did in Nehemia 8. Take off your shoes (figuratively speaking, or even literally).

Approach God in holy reverence and in isolation. Fix your eyes only on Him, the Eternal.

Raise your hands, because you are entering the fire and the light of His holiness. Give thanks to Him that the Holy Spirit pleads for you.

Thank God that Jesus, the Mediator, made possible this impossible event - your meeting with the eternal God. Kneel before Him, bow deeply. He is God and He wants to speak to you today.

Forgive me, Lord, for allowing reverence for your Word to dissapear so from my life to such an extent that I find myself reading it as though it was an inspirational mass-produced greeting card. Convince me that I am standing on holy ground before You. Amen!