Grace Covenant Church of Mid Mo
Show Me Your Glory

      • Psalm 133:1NKJV

      • Psalm 147:3NKJV

      • 2 Timothy 4:1–5NKJV

  • Exodus 33:13–18
    There comes a moment when what God has given you cannot quiet your hunger for God Himself.
    You are grateful for the doors He opened. You remember the prayers He answered. You can name the places where He kept you when you could not keep yourself. But beneath your thanksgiving, another prayer begins to rise.
    “Lord, I thank You for what You have done. But I need You.”
    That is where we find Moses.
    He had stood before Pharaoh and watched the power of God confront the power of Egypt. He had stretched his hand over the sea and watched God make a road where there had never been a road. He had seen bread appear on the ground and water come out of a rock.
    Yet the man who had seen all of that still prayed, “Show me thy glory.”
    What else could a man want after watching a sea divide?
    Moses wanted to know the God who divided it.
    Exodus 33:13–18 NKJV
    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. For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.” So the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.” And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.”
    Grace family, there is a hunger that another blessing cannot satisfy. There is a thirst that another accomplishment cannot reach. You can have something to celebrate and still have a soul crying out for communion with God.
    We ought to thank Him for every gift. But we must never confuse receiving His gifts with walking closely with Him.
    Having the blessings of God is not the same as walking in the presence of God.
    To understand the weight of Moses’ prayer, we have to look at what happened before he prayed it.
    Israel had sinned.
    While Moses was on the mountain, the people made a golden calf. The nation God had delivered from slavery bowed before something they had made with their own hands. They had come out of Egypt, but their worship still carried the habits of bondage.
    They wanted a god they could see, manage, and carry.
    Then, in Exodus 33, the Lord told Moses to lead the people toward the land He had promised. He would send an angel before them and drive out their enemies. But He also said He would not go among them, lest their stubborn rebellion bring His judgment upon them.
    The land was still ahead. The promise had not disappeared. But the prospect of moving forward without the Lord dwelling among them caused the people to mourn.
    That is the crisis behind this conversation.
    Moses was not asking for a more exciting worship experience. He was interceding for a people whose sin had endangered their fellowship with God.
    And that brings this passage close to home.
    We can keep a calendar full while our prayer life grows empty. We can know when to stand, when to sing, and when to lift our hands, yet resist God when He tells us to forgive somebody.
    The machinery can keep running after the heart has grown cold.
    Moses teaches us to stop and ask a searching question: What good is moving forward if we are becoming less attentive to the One who called us?
    A growing ministry still needs a surrendered heart. A beautiful sanctuary still needs a praying people. A gifted preacher still needs to hear from God.
    Lord, keep us from becoming comfortable with anything that helps us function without seeking Your face.
    Moses begins in verse 13:
    “Show me now thy way, that I may know thee.”
    Before he asks to see God’s glory, he asks to know God’s way.
    That order matters.
    We often want God to show us where we are going. Moses asks God to reveal who He is. He wants to understand the Lord’s dealings so that he can walk faithfully with Him.
    “Lord, teach me how You lead. Teach me what pleases You. Help me recognize Your way when it crosses my own.”
    That prayer reaches into ordinary life.
    It reaches the husband who wants peace in his home but refuses to listen. It reaches the church member who wants revival but keeps feeding an old resentment. It reaches the leader who asks God to bless an assignment while neglecting the people entrusted to his care.
    We cannot sincerely ask to know God’s ways while insisting that He leave our ways untouched.
    If His way calls for repentance, will we repent?
    If His way calls for patience, will we wait?
    If His way calls for an apology, will we make it without defending everything we did?
    “Show me Your glory” is a beautiful prayer. But it becomes a costly prayer when the glory of God exposes what we have been excusing.
    Moses also says, “Consider that this nation is thy people.”
    He carries the people into his prayer.
    These were the same people who had complained, resisted, and fallen into idolatry. Moses did not pretend their sin was small. Yet he pleaded for them.
    There is something here for everyone who has grown weary of caring for others.
    A parent can become so exhausted by a child’s choices that every conversation turns into correction. A pastor can become so burdened by problems that he begins to see the congregation only through its struggles.
    Moses looks at a guilty nation and reminds himself, even as he speaks to God, “These are Your people.”
    Seeking God’s presence ought to deepen our love for the people around us. Communion with God must not become an excuse to withdraw from the burdens of our neighbor.
    Then the Lord answers:
    “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.”
    What mercy there is in that answer.
    Moses had a nation to lead, a wilderness to cross, and burdens he could not carry by himself. God answered him with the promise of His presence and rest.
    The wilderness would still be a wilderness. Leadership would still require endurance. But Moses would not have to make the journey in his own strength.
    Somebody needs to hear that today.
    God’s presence does not mean you will never face a difficult conversation or walk through a painful season. It means your trouble does not have the final authority over your life.
    You belong to the Lord.
    And the One who calls you knows how to sustain you.
    Moses responds:
    “If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence.”
    In other words, “Lord, I cannot accept a future for these people that leaves You behind.”
    He had seen enough of God to know that the land could never take God’s place.
    The fruit of Canaan could feed their bodies. It could not reconcile their hearts to the Lord. Houses and vineyards could improve their circumstances. They could not become their Savior.
    We need that discernment.
    An opportunity can look good and still require us to compromise what God has said. A door can open and still lead us toward pride. Success can become dangerous when it teaches us to trust ourselves.
    Before we ask, “How far can this take me?” we need to ask, “Can I walk this road in obedience to God?”
    Before we ask, “Will people notice?” we need to ask, “Will the Lord be honored?”
    Moses goes on to ask how anyone would know that he and the people had found favor with God. His answer is the Lord’s presence among them.
    That was what distinguished Israel.
    Grace Covenant Church, our deepest need cannot be supplied by a better program. We should prepare well. We should serve with care. We should give God our attention and our best effort.
    But we need the living God among us.
    We need His Word to correct us. We need His Spirit to make us tender toward Him and truthful with one another. We need the kind of love that visits the lonely, feeds the hungry, welcomes the stranger, and stays beside the grieving after everyone else has gone home.
    Those are places where our prayers about His presence take visible shape.
    Then, after the Lord assures Moses that He has found favor in His sight, Moses makes his extraordinary request:
    “I beseech thee, show me thy glory.”
    Listen to the boldness of a man who has been received by grace.
    He asks for more.
    Moses is not purchasing an encounter through religious effort. God has already spoken of favor. His request grows out of that gracious relationship.
    Grace gives him courage to draw near.
    And God answers by speaking of His goodness, His name, and His mercy. In the verses that follow, the Lord also places a limit around what Moses can see. Moses cannot behold God’s face and live. God shelters him in the cleft of the rock.
    Even in this encounter, Moses depends upon God to protect him.
    We do not control the glory of God. We receive what God graciously reveals.
    And when the Lord passes before Moses in Exodus 34, He proclaims His character: merciful, gracious, patient, abundant in goodness and truth. He forgives sin, and He does not treat guilt as though it does not matter.
    Here is the God Moses needs to know.
    Holy enough to judge the golden calf. Merciful enough to continue dealing with the people who made it.
    That truth keeps us from two terrible mistakes. We must never become casual about sin, and we must never conclude that repentant sinners are beyond the reach of mercy.
    The Lord who exposes our rebellion also calls us to return.
    John 1:14 NKJV
    And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
    As Christians, we read this passage with our eyes turned toward Jesus Christ. John tells us that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and that His glory was beheld, full of grace and truth.
    The glory Moses longed to see finds its fullest revelation in the Son.
    Look at Jesus touching the unclean. Look at Him receiving sinners. Look at Him weeping beside a grave. Then look at Him going to the cross, where the seriousness of sin and the depth of divine love meet.
    We do not have to invent a picture of God’s heart.
    We look to Christ.
    And we remember that our present sight is not the end of the story. The day is coming when faith will give way to sight. Revelation promises that God’s servants will see His face.
    The longing of this prayer reaches beyond today’s service. We are being prepared for life with God forever.
    Until that day, we keep praying.
    “Lord, show us Your glory.”
    Your faithfulness yesterday gives us reason to trust You today. But yesterday’s obedience cannot replace today’s surrender.
    We need You in the home where people have stopped speaking kindly.
    We need You beside the hospital bed.
    We need You in the life of the caregiver who keeps serving while quietly running out of strength.
    We need You in the heart of the young person who knows the language of church but has not learned to bring You the truth about their pain.
    And this is where the prayer for rain becomes our own.
    Moses does not speak of rain in this passage. Yet Scripture elsewhere uses rain to picture the Lord’s refreshing provision. Hosea calls God’s people to return to Him and speaks of His coming like rain upon the earth.
    So, Grace family, let us bring our dry places before Him.
    Lord, rain upon the fields of our families.
    Where words have wounded, teach us to speak with grace. Where trust has been broken, lead us into the patient work of truth and repair.
    Rain upon the fields of our children and grandchildren.
    Draw their hearts toward Christ. Give us wisdom to love them, courage to teach them, and humility to live what we say.
    Rain upon the fields of our ministries.
    Restore joy where service has become a burden. Correct us where ambition has displaced love. Help us notice the people we have overlooked.
    And rain upon the hidden ground of our own hearts.
    The place beneath the smile. The place we keep busy so we will not have to examine it. The place where disappointment has hardened into unbelief.
    Lord, soften that ground.
    But as we ask for rain, let us also yield to the Gardener. Let Him pull up what does not belong. Let Him turn the soil we have guarded. Let Him change the habits that keep choking what He has planted.
    We want our lives to bear fruit.
    So before we hurry into the next assignment, let us linger over Moses’ prayer.
    Do we want to know God’s way, even when it requires us to change?
    Have we been asking Him to bless something we have not surrendered?
    Who needs to be carried in our prayers today?
    There is room at this altar for gratitude. There is room for weariness. There is room for honest repentance.
    Come to the Lord as you are, and place yourself in His hands.
    “Father, we thank You for every mercy. We remember the ways You have made and the prayers You have answered.
    “Now teach us Your way, that we may know You.
    “Forgive us for the times we have been busy with Your work and careless with Your voice. Restore our love for Your Word. Make us willing to obey.
    “Let Your presence go with us. Refresh the fields You have entrusted to our care. Let Christ be seen in the way we worship, the way we serve, and the way we love one another.
    “Lord, show us Your glory.
    “We need You today.
    “In Jesus’ name, amen.”

      • Exodus 33:13–18NKJV

      • John 1:14NKJV

      • Deuteronomy 1:11CJBIB

      • Hebrews 1:3NKJV

      • Psalm 133:1NKJV

      • Psalm 147:3NKJV

Grace Covenant Church of Mid Mo
info@damascusministries.org
573-290-2144
https://www.mograce.org
16 members