I love that song that we just sang. Consider with me for just a moment the lyrics:
“Behold our God seated on His throne. Come, let us adore Him.”
What does it mean to behold something? Well, it’s a call to look, to see, to pay attention.
And, you know, it’s not primarily something having to do with our physical sight. Although, of course, it can include that. It’s really this spiritual vision, this ability, this gift that God’s given us of imagination. We can visualize with our mind’s eye. And so, we’re called to behold God, and it’s a command, and it’s also an invitation. You see, we’re able to do what that invitation requires of us.
We’re able to close our eyes as we sing those words and picture God, picture Jesus on a throne with His robe flowing, a scepter in His hand, whatever might come into our minds. And filled with worship and awe and adoration in that moment, we can even respond to that vision with our physical bodies. We can kneel, we can bend, we can bow before Him. We can raise our hands in worship.
As 2 Corinthians 3:18 reminds us,
“As we behold God with unveiled faces, we’re transformed into His likeness.”
And in that process, we radiate His glory more and more. And so, Cities Church, my exhortation to us this morning is that we would turn from lesser things and behold Him.
Prayer of Confession
Heavenly Father, you’ve given us this amazing gift to be able to choose what we pay attention to. Because what we pay attention to, Lord, we will delight in that, and we will become like that. And yet, God, this very capacity, this gift has become corrupted.
We can go all the way back to the fall, Lord, when it was first corrupted, and yet here in our current context, Lord, we experience just the weight of distractions in the attention economy, Lord, so many things coming at us seeking to pull our attention away from what matters most, Lord. And so we confess to You this morning our failure to behold Your glory, God, to behold Your glory in worship, Lord, to fill our minds and our thoughts with who You are.
Not just on Sunday mornings, perhaps in an environment like this. Even here, it can be hard, Lord, to avoid distractions, Lord. But then in the middle of our weeks, God, we fail to bring you to mind, God, while we work and play in all that we do, God. We also fail, God, to see your glory in others, Lord.
You’ve placed your image in mankind, God. Regardless of the condition that we see, we find our fallen brokenness, God, there is a glory self there that is waiting to be seen by us, and we fail to see that, God. We focus on the negative, we focus on the shameful aspects of one another, God, and we need your help, Lord. So we ask for your forgiveness this morning for our dullness.
We ask for your forgiveness for our failure to respond to your call to behold your glory. Would you examine our hearts now in this moment of silent confession, God, and show us the things that we’re beholding, God, that are less than you…
