Grace Baptist Church

View Original

Simple Ways to Cultivate Awe and Lower Your Stress

Your browser doesn't support HTML5 audio

Simple Ways to Cultivate Awe and Lower Your Stress Paul Sadler

Last week, I talked about how awe can lower our stress and give us a greater sense of peace and rest. It was the first time I had heard scientific studies on awe and wonder, but the conclusions seemed to agree with what the Bible has taught all along. Today, I’d like to consider some simple steps for experiencing awe in the daily rhythms of your life.

In one of the research experiments for the paper, Awe, Daily Stress, and Elevated Life Satisfaction, they had a group of 60 older adults take 15-minute walks for 8 weeks. They weren’t studying the impact of the walk on people’s behaviour, however. Half of the people just went for a walk. The other half were encouraged to look for awe as they did so. Both groups did the same activity for the same length of time, but while the former group tended to think about their day and upcoming plans while they walked, the latter group noticed the beauty, took in the wonder, and reflected on all they heard and saw. Interestingly, the group that was looking for awe showed lower stress, higher compassion, and deeper gratitude than the control group.

In a fascinating twist, they even asked participants to take selfies of themselves at the beginning, middle, and end of each walk. Those who were focused on awe not only smiled more intensely but they even showed less of themselves and more of the beauty around them in their pictures as the study progressed. Researchers concluded that awe not only produces contentment but a smaller, healthier understanding of yourself in relation to the world.

The parallels between how these two groups of people approached their walk and how we approach our faith and relationship with God are clear. Presumably, Christians can read their Bibles, pray, serve, and go to church either intentionally pursuing awe or acting largely oblivious to it. Here are some simple ways to cultivate awe in your relationship with God.

1. Reflect on the design and beauty of God’s creation

One of the great examples of an awe-seeking person is David. In Psalm 19, he revels in how “the heavens declare the glory of God” (Psalm 19:1) and it’s clear that he’s spent hours looking closely and thinking intently about how all that God has made reflects His vast power and majesty. Like those on the walk, picturing themselves smaller and smaller in light of their world, David looks at the wonder of the universe and asks in Psalm 8:4, “What is man that you are mindful of him …?” The beauty of God’s creation invites us to reflect on the glory of the Artist and Designer who made it.

2. Reflect on God’s care for all He has made

Jesus taught us to “Look at the birds of the air” and how “your heavenly Father feeds them” (Matthew 6:26) and “consider the lilies of the field” and how God adorns them (Matthew 6:27-28). He’s telling us to reflect on God’s sovereign care and provision for His creation and so reassure ourselves of His concern and commitment to us. As you go for a walk, look out the window, or vacation in nature, try to think about how God sustains all that there is.

3. Think deeply about who God is and what He’s done

It’s easy to approach the Bible looking for rules about what to do and not do and to listen to sermons for the answers to your problems. But the Bible is fundamentally about God before it’s about us. As you read, listen, and pray, intentionally put your focus on God. As Psalm 33:8 says, “Let all the earth fear the LORD; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him!” Awe is an expression of that reverent fear of the Lord that is at the heart of a healthy relationship with God. It’s the attitude intended by the words “tremble before him, all the earth!” that appears in Psalm 96:9 and many other passages. It’s the heart set afire in worship, and it’s what all of us need – and all the more so when problems overwhelm, and we feel the stress rising.

What helps you cultivate awe in your relationship with God? If there’s something that helps you, share it in the comments so that we can all learn from it.

In awe of Him,

Paul

P.S. If this is new to you and you think it’s something you’d like to explore, I’ve written a free, 12-week course called The Unstuck Life that walks you through the essentials of Jesus’ teachings in daily, bite-sized messages that you can read or watch by video. To learn more, click on the image below.

See this gallery in the original post