Pray:
Ask God to orient or reorient you to Himself. Confess any known sin. Thank Him for His forgiveness. Be still and reflect on Jesus and His sacrifice for you. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart and mind to God’s Word. Pray for others in your life that they, too, would know and love God today.
Read:
Exodus 34:5-9
“5 Then the LORD came down in the cloud and stood there with him and proclaimed His name, the LORD. 6 And He passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, 7 maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet He does not leave the guilty unpunished; He punishes the children and their children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation.” 8Moses bowed down to the ground at once and worshiped. 9“Lord,” he said, “if you are pleased with me, then go with us. Even though these people are stubborn, forgive the evil things we have done. Forgive our sin. And accept us as your people.”
Understand:
In Exodus 33:13, we find Moses asking to know God’s ways. We see a list of God’s attributes that serve as His answer. The Lord reveals Himself as a merciful and gracious God, patient, and abounding in goodness and truth.
In verse seven, we see God’s justice. Three different words are used to convey iniquity—wickedness, rebellion, and sin. They convey the idea of falling short of God. The Israelites should all have died for having broken the law of God, but the Lord spared them in His mercy.
Here Moses experiences a new vision of the glory of God. God is revealing His character to Moses as He recites His name, the LORD (Yahweh). In it, we see God as compassionate, full of grace, loyal, faithful, and forgiving.
Apply:
Romans 3:23-24 tells us that “Everyone has sinned. No one measures up to God’s glory. The free gift of God’s grace makes all of us right with Him. Christ Jesus paid the price to set us free.” By trusting in Christ our sins have been taken away from us. We have been justified! We have been declared not guilty. All of the charges against us have been removed. As believers, we can live differently; we’ve been made new. We can have confidence in Christ to take away our sins and empower us to live a life that brings glory to Him.
This same God who passed before Moses and said “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin…” is the same God that revealed Himself to you! Embodied in Jesus Christ are these and many more attributes. Think about this truth. Think about His greatness.
Now think about this: Christ Jesus, the all-powerful one…the I AM, has purchased your freedom and the price was His life! Take a moment now and offer Him your praise and worship, for He alone is worthy.
Live:
(Personalize this prayer today; make it specific to the circumstances that face you.)
Ask God to lead you through His Spirit as you go through your day. Ask Him to bring to mind the truth of the gospel and its implications for what you will encounter today. Tell Him “Yes” to His will and ask Him for His power and protection to live this “yes.” Ask God to create and reveal opportunities to proclaim the good news today. KEEP PRAYING THROUGHOUT YOUR DAY.