June 9

Matthew 17:6–7 (NIV)
6 When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified. 7 But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.”

What were they afraid of? God hadn’t come to judge them or harm them. In fact God’s presence had come to testify of His great love for His son, but it did include the command to “listen to Him”. That doesn’t sound very scary to me.

When the manifest presence of God shows up – in any way – it can be a very scary thing. There is this tension within me to have a close and intimate relationship with the Father, hanging out with Him and talking to Him casually, yet if He revealed Himself, His full presence to me, I would die – literally! It would be too much for me according to the scripture. So it goes to figure that His presence would cause one to fall on their face – terrified! It would be both wonderful and horrible because of the grand magnitude of the effect of His presence. I think we need to never lose site of the fact that the Father is the creator of all and is so grand we can’t conceive of His fullness. In other words, we need to keep the tension there, not allowing ourselves to become so casual with Him that we cease to honor His awesomeness.

So what does Jesus do? His says, “get up, don’t be afraid.” Easy for you to say! Think about it, he came and touched them and told them not be afraid. We are not suppose to be terrified of the Father as in He wants to hurt us. Jesus shows us the Father, who loves mercy and wants relationship with us. We approach Him boldly because of our confidence in the work of Christ. So go to the Father – run to Him – embrace Him and don’t be terrified of Him. Enjoy your relationship with Him and never forget who He is.