This week I had an opportunity to speak to a women’s group for Baptist Women’s World Day of Prayer. I shared with them Six Bold Prayers that Changed My Life. This post is the second in a series of posts that is based on that speech.

The first bold prayer is Lord, Bless Me, which you can read here.: https://paigespencil.com/2023/11/07/bold-prayers-that-changed-my-life-part-1/?fbclid=IwAR3gnuo1rM8d8p7dK0kp-woyS-Fkmn0cd1-P5obmMqIKQkd6YAIJ3H4CHNU

I will continue to share those bold prayers over the next several days.

Bold Prayer #2: Show me your glory (Exodus 33:18)

In Exodus chapter 33, Moses is talking with God. He petitions God for His presence to stay with them to guide them through the wilderness, and He also asks for God to teach them His ways so they he might have God’s favor. 

The conversation concludes in verse 17 when the Lord answered Moses, saying, “I will do this very thing you have asked, for you have found favor with Me, and I know you by name.”

So far, this conversation is reminiscent of Jacob’s prayer … both the prayer for blessing, and the idea of being known by name.

But Moses is going to take it a step further. Like Jacob, he doesn’t let it end. Instead, Moses gets bold with God and replies back, “Please, let me see Your glory.”

The word glory in this passage could be translated with the word abundance or splendor or riches. Given that, this is a strange request for Moses to make. After all, it’s not as if Moses hadn’t seen God’s glory before.

He had first encountered the Lord at the burning bush. He had witnessed the wonders associated with God’s deliverance of his people from Egypt, including his rod becoming a snake, the Nile River turning into blood, and the grand finale when God parted the Red Sea so that the Israelites could cross over on dry land.

In the wilderness, Moses has seen God providing manna and quail for the people to eat each day. He gives them water from a rock. Moses was given The Ten Commandments, written by God’s own finger.

But here he is asking to see God’s glory. 

Are we like Moses? Have we seen God’s glory in our own lives?

We can certainly look around us and see the splendor of God just by watching nature. This time of year, we see the trees beginning to change colors and if that isn’t a magnificent display of God’s splendor then I don’t know what is!. If you have ever had the opportunity to be in New England in the fall, you know that our fall colors do not compare to the autumn leaves there. And yet, it’s still a pretty glorious thing to observe even around here. The trees just seem to outdo themselves with their brilliant fall leaves! 

During my adult life, I have been blessed to live in several different places around the United States.

Twenty-two years ago, I had the opportunity to live along coastal California. From the giant Redwoods, to the waves crashing along the rocky shores of Monterey Bay … it was stunningly beautiful.

Then I moved to Savannah, Georgia, where there are soft sandy beaches that stretch for miles and miles. There were lowlands of marshy grasses, and lightening storms like nothing I had ever seen before. It was vastly different than the California coast but no less amazing to me.

After a few years in George, I moved to Virginia. Now I was in awe of those smokey Blue Ridge Mountains. Later on, I moved out to west Texas where I discovered air that never ceased to move and tumbleweeds that showed up out of nowhere.

Currently, I live in south Louisiana. Let me tell you there is nothing more gorgeous than a sunrise or a sunset across the bayou. The springs here are a glorious display of colorful flowers.

We see God’s glory in all of His creation. From the vast variety of animals He created, to the expanse of the solar system to which scientists cannot find an end, to the intricate detail of tiny cells and molecules that make up literally everything in existence to the ferocious weather like hurricanes or tornadoes that terrifies us … in each of these things we see the revelation of God’s glory.

Let’s go back to Moses, who boldly asked God a question: Let me see Your glory. 

Do you remember how God responded to Moses’ request?

God passed by Moses, as he stood in the cleft of the rock. And as he stood there, God covered Moses with his hand, and then as He passed by, He removed his hand to allow Moses to see His back. 

Now I don’t know about you, but I don’t think the back of anyone is an especially impressive view. I mean, if I am looking for beauty, I want to see the frontside. But God told Moses all the glory he could take and still live would be to see the backside. 

The more I see of God’s vast creation, the more I realize that we are down here on this earth seeing the glory contained in God’s pinky toe! We haven’t even begun to see the glory of God. And until we reach Heaven, we will not see the fullness of His glory. It’s certainly something to look forward to someday, isn’t it?

Moses’ prayer illustrates this truth: We cannot have enough God.  

We can’t know Him fully. We can’t see all of His glory. We can’t understand everything in the Bible. God is too vast, too big, too amazing, too glorious for us to fully comprehend.

Moses had already seen an incredible amount of God’s glory before he prayed this prayer. And yet, he longed to see more of God’s glory. This insatiable desire isn’t unique to Moses. The greatest saints throughout history consistently speak of a deeper longing for God. This is because even as the presence of God profoundly satisfies us, at the same time it stirs within us an even more powerful longing for of God.

You and I have both seen many wonders of God. We know how the miracles and provisions He has worked in our lives. Day by day, we live in a world where we can truly be in awe of His creation. 

May the bold cry of Moses’s heart be a prayer that falls from our lips too … “God, show me your glory!”