I have had opportunity over the past week to spend some time
reflecting and in quiet. It has been welcomed admidst a season of chaos.
I had an assignment last week Wednesday to spend a couple
hours reading through a chapter in a book called “Touch the World through
Prayer” and then reflect. I gathered a large blanket, a full and potent cup of
coffee and made my way into the backyard, journal, bible and pen in hand to
soak up some Gretna sun!
I didn’t make it far into the chapter before I became
incredibly captivated by the story of Moses in Exodus 33 and 34. The story is
not unfamiliar, but as I sat on the grass asking God to awaken me to see and
hear new things, I was drawn in to this beautiful story. In short, the story
goes like this, Moses is on Mount Sinai and is meeting with God. He asks God if
he might be able to see the Glory of God. The response Moses receives is not
what he was hoping for. God places Moses in the cleft of a rock, covers his
eyes until the Glory of the Lord passes him by and then allows Moses to take in
what remains after the Glory passes. Moses is allowed to see the back of God.
“One cannot see the face of God and still live.”
To see God’s glory in partial was meant to be enough for
Moses. Can you imagine what it must be like to take in the Glory of God in
full? God’s glory, His power, His name, His authority is beyond what we can
even imagine. Can we be satisfied in experiencing the presence of God only in
part?
Sometimes I think I am fearful of experiencing God’s glory.
In asking to see the Glory of God, there is responsibility that accompanies
that request. Can I be obedient in what results and the responsibility that
accompanies an encounter like that? Sometimes not. But we are invited to come.
We are invited to approach the throne of God with confidence and with
authority. Seeing the Glory of God should not ignite in us a spirit of fear,
but rather stir in us a craving for more because we have yet to take in the
glory and the presence of God in its fullness.
Unlike Moses, we have been invited to approach the throne of
God because grace covers us. I find myself contemplating if I truly understand
and know what it means to be clothed in the grace of Christ. Do I choose to
walk confidently in the knowledge and in the power of grace?
The other day someone shared with me the story in Luke 7
about the unclean woman who washes the feet of Jesus with her tears.
I think what I love about this story in Luke– or at least find intriguing about it
– is that this woman chooses to act in boldness as she approaches the feet of
Christ. There is a beautiful act of worship that is performed – it is intimate
and done in a spirit of humility. Despite any choices this woman may have made
in her life, the broken relationships and the emotional baggage that
accompanies her, she does not shy away from approaching the throne of God. She
does not let the sin in her life or the brokenness stop her from continuing to
walk in the direction of Jesus. She boldly comes and Jesus commends her for the
love that she has shown him.
She then is invited to go –to live freely and to
exhale peace.
Oh what it would mean to exhale peace - to breathe in the
grace and love of Christ and breathe out peace. What a beautiful rhythm. To
imagine that grace entering your body, giving life to each part, allowing that
grace to sustain life.
Grace breathes life.
I am challenged - challenged to approach the throne of God
with confidence. Do I dare to come boldly? God longs for me to worship at his
feet. I have been created to worship – invited to come as I am. I am invited to
come confidently, but also in a spirit of humility. I am invited to bathe in
the grace that Christ as I come. My heart craves to be in the presence of
Christ – to take in the fullness of His Glory, to kneel at the feet of Jesus
and worship the power and the glory that is His Name.
