Week 32 Day 5
Pray:
Ask God to 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:
Ex. 33:1-20 The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent. Moses said to the LORD, “You have been telling me, ‘Lead these people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, ‘I know you by name and you have found favor with me.’ If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people.” The LORD replied, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Then Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?” And the LORD said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.” Then Moses said, “Now show me your glory.” And the LORD said, “I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD, in your presence. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live.”
Reflect:
Reflect on Moses waking up drowsy and discouraged one morning. Think of his actual back feeling sore and his mind dreading the day in front of him. See him in your mind’s eye bending over to put on his footwear and brushing back his “bed head”. Think of him sitting and eating breakfast and spending time talking to God. It is important that you think about Moses and other biblical figures as actual people who lived real lives. It is important because we can turn all kinds of famous people into more than, or other than, human. When we do this, we miss the opportunity to really learn from their lives. When you read of Moses having a “face to face” conversation with God, consider what it might have looked like. Certainly God could have caused Moses’ eardrums to vibrate and create signals to his brain that sounded like a person talking. But God doesn’t have physical lips or lungs, so it wasn’t “talking” like we think of it. Perhaps God skipped Moses’ eardrums and just created the words directly in his mind. All communication ends up there anyway and God can skip the other parts of the process quite easily. Go back and read the passage that you have been reading all week and read it like it happened to a real person. Read it like you would if you read it in a newspaper and it was validated as a factual event. What questions would you have in your mind? Train yourself to read Scripture this way. Train yourself to move through life thinking of God in this way. He is the same God now that he was then. He has the same goals and desires now as then. Of course his work in human history is a part of a long plan, so it changes in terms of his processes. But God himself does not change. Clearly he desires friendship with you. Do you desire this kind of friendship with him? If so, what might it look like in your life as you move into today? As you brush your hair and your teeth, as you deal with drowsiness and discouragement…consider the possibility and the reality of friendship with God.
Pray:
(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.