Living To the Glory of God
"Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your WAY, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.”
And He said, “My PRESENCE will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here... And he said, “Please, show me Your GLORY” (Exodus 33:13-15,18)
Ever since God created the heavens and the earth, His glory and presence has been inescapable. God is always present but there are times when His presence is made known and felt and experienced by those who are spiritually aware and who humbly draw near to Him.
When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, they "hid themselves from the presence of LORD God" and Cain also "went out from the presence of the LORD" after killing his brother (Gen. 3:8, 4:16) It is our sinful, fallen state that causes God to feel distant and makes us feel alone or even want to withdraw from His presence at times in our lives.
Moses felt this distance from God early in his leadership as the people had become more aware of their difficult surroundings than the presence of God. Have you ever been there?
Moses was desperate for God to show him the way to live and move forward that he might be able to lead God's people. The Lord responded to Moses that His presence would go with Him and go before Him. This is what Moses needed more than anything else and the same is true for all of us who seek to follow God today. We need His ABIDING and GUIDING presence!
Are you practicing being in the presence of God in your life at this time? Are you aware of His presence right now upholding you, guiding you, and comforting you?
As believers in the New Covenant, we have more than God's presence being with us, we have the promise of God's holy presence being within us, since we have the indwelling Spirit. Jesus told His first disciples that He would not leave them orphans but that He would come to them and dwell in them by His His Spirit, who would be both with us and IN us (John 14: 16-18).
What an amazing promise that we have fulfilled in us even now! Just think...the Living God lives inside of us and will never leave us nor forsake us. And as David said, "You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is the fullness of joy" (Ps. 16:11).
How does this impact your life as you seek to live each day for the glory of God?
When we draw near to God, He promises to draw near to us (James 4:8). This is more than just His omnipresence but His manifest presence in our lives. He desires to make Himself personally known to us.
God's ongoing presence means that we can fully trust the Lord and lean not on our own understanding. But we must learn to "acknowledge Him in all of our ways" and then He promises to "direct our paths" (Prov. 3:5-6). When we feel God alive in our lives and working in us, we are much more confident to obey His commands and to do all that He asks of us. We know that His strength will be perfected in our weakness because His Spirit comes upon us.
Living to the Glory of God requires us to:
When Moses began to understand these things, he wanted to witness and experience more of God's glory. So He asked the LORD, "Please, show me Your glory."
Is this your desire today?
God did indeed allow some of His goodness to pass before Moses but His glory was too much for him and he was only able to see His back and not His face. The LORD said to him, "So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by."
There is a powerful insight here since WE NOW HAVE JESUS as the Chief Cornerstone in our lives and we are living stones being fit together into Him. Moses had to be placed in the cleft of the rock because the glory of God was too great for him to behold at that time. For "no flesh should glory in His presence" (1 Cor. 1:29).
But now God has placed us and fit us together in the Rock that is Christ. We must now see that we are dead to our sins and alive in Christ. As we remain hidden in Christ, His glory can and will be seen through us. Paul understood this when he said:
"For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him IN GLORY" (Col. 3:3-4).
And He said, “My PRESENCE will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here... And he said, “Please, show me Your GLORY” (Exodus 33:13-15,18)
Ever since God created the heavens and the earth, His glory and presence has been inescapable. God is always present but there are times when His presence is made known and felt and experienced by those who are spiritually aware and who humbly draw near to Him.
When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, they "hid themselves from the presence of LORD God" and Cain also "went out from the presence of the LORD" after killing his brother (Gen. 3:8, 4:16) It is our sinful, fallen state that causes God to feel distant and makes us feel alone or even want to withdraw from His presence at times in our lives.
Moses felt this distance from God early in his leadership as the people had become more aware of their difficult surroundings than the presence of God. Have you ever been there?
Moses was desperate for God to show him the way to live and move forward that he might be able to lead God's people. The Lord responded to Moses that His presence would go with Him and go before Him. This is what Moses needed more than anything else and the same is true for all of us who seek to follow God today. We need His ABIDING and GUIDING presence!
Are you practicing being in the presence of God in your life at this time? Are you aware of His presence right now upholding you, guiding you, and comforting you?
As believers in the New Covenant, we have more than God's presence being with us, we have the promise of God's holy presence being within us, since we have the indwelling Spirit. Jesus told His first disciples that He would not leave them orphans but that He would come to them and dwell in them by His His Spirit, who would be both with us and IN us (John 14: 16-18).
What an amazing promise that we have fulfilled in us even now! Just think...the Living God lives inside of us and will never leave us nor forsake us. And as David said, "You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is the fullness of joy" (Ps. 16:11).
How does this impact your life as you seek to live each day for the glory of God?
When we draw near to God, He promises to draw near to us (James 4:8). This is more than just His omnipresence but His manifest presence in our lives. He desires to make Himself personally known to us.
God's ongoing presence means that we can fully trust the Lord and lean not on our own understanding. But we must learn to "acknowledge Him in all of our ways" and then He promises to "direct our paths" (Prov. 3:5-6). When we feel God alive in our lives and working in us, we are much more confident to obey His commands and to do all that He asks of us. We know that His strength will be perfected in our weakness because His Spirit comes upon us.
Living to the Glory of God requires us to:
- “Know God intimately” – His Manifest Presence
- “Find grace consistently” – His Manifold Grace
- “Be His people openly” – His Marvelous Light
When Moses began to understand these things, he wanted to witness and experience more of God's glory. So He asked the LORD, "Please, show me Your glory."
Is this your desire today?
God did indeed allow some of His goodness to pass before Moses but His glory was too much for him and he was only able to see His back and not His face. The LORD said to him, "So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by."
There is a powerful insight here since WE NOW HAVE JESUS as the Chief Cornerstone in our lives and we are living stones being fit together into Him. Moses had to be placed in the cleft of the rock because the glory of God was too great for him to behold at that time. For "no flesh should glory in His presence" (1 Cor. 1:29).
But now God has placed us and fit us together in the Rock that is Christ. We must now see that we are dead to our sins and alive in Christ. As we remain hidden in Christ, His glory can and will be seen through us. Paul understood this when he said:
"For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him IN GLORY" (Col. 3:3-4).
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