On My Face in Thanks

Ezekiel 44:1-45:12; Psalm 119:33-64; Proverbs 28:15-16

Then the man brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the temple. I looked and saw the glory of the LORD filling the temple of the LORD, and I fell facedown. – Ezekiel 44:4

Do you realize that the one true God’s glory is overwhelming? That no man can stand before Him unless God Himself makes the man stand? That He is so holy, so good, so majestic that all our sins and flaws are sharply highlighted by His ever-wonderful perfection?

When we come to God, we are not simply coming to some impressive human—a high school star athlete, a homecoming queen, a successful businessman, a winsome celebrity, or a prestigious politician. Some people are impressive in their own ways, but at some level we believe that they are reachable, touchable, knowable. They’re not so far removed from us that friendship is hopeless.

God is. We simply cannot deserve time with Him, conversations with Him, smiles from Him. God would be perfectly within His rights to despise us, avoid us, ignore us. Simply by virtue of God’s glory and our antiglory, we have no right to come to Him.

And yet it is this God who has invited us into His presence. It is this glorious God who has condescended to relate to us, who has lovingly reached out to us without reluctance by sending His own perfect and glorious Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross as a ransom for our lives. We can boldly approach Him, not because He’s reachable, but because He reached out to us.

If there’s any reason to give thanks today, that’s it!

Father, thank You.