Moses said, “Please show me your glory.”
– Exodus 33:18
There is so much in Exodus 32, 33, and 34 that I would love to lead us to pray according to Exodus 32. Moses prays, he intercedes for God’s people who were under his judgment. And God answers Moses’ prayer and saves his people from his judgment. God does exactly what Moses asked him to do. It’s an awesome picture of the way we participate with God and what he’s doing in the world. When you get to Exodus 33, the beginning, Moses pleads for the fullness of God’s presence with his people saying, I can’t do anything you’re calling me to do apart from the fullness of your presence with me and with us. And then Moses goes into the tent of meeting to meet with God.
Exodus 33:18 pictures Moses’s relentless pursuit of God’s presence.
And we see this incredible verse. God speaks with Moses face to face as a man speaks with his friend, this personal communion with God. But then you get to verse 18, and God has answered Moses in all kinds of ways that he has prayed. Then Moses says these words, “Please show me your glory.”
And I’m reading this thinking, what are you talking about? This is Moses. He’s seen God’s glory revealed in a burning bush, this perpetual flame that didn’t go out as God spoke to him personally. This is the man who saw God perform plague after plague after plague to show his power and glory. This is Moses who saw God split a sea in half, right in front of his eyes. He struck a rock and saw water come pouring out of it to replenish his people. He prayed for food and saw God send bread from Heaven.
This is the man who when everybody else was warned to stay away from the mountain Mount Sinai, he was invited to stand on the mountain and commune with God. Like if anybody had seen the glory of God, it was Moses. He’d seen so much. But that’s what I love about this verse. He wanted more because when you really taste of the glory of God, then you have an insatiable desire to see and experience more and more and more.
Exodus 33:18 teaches us to hunger for more of God’s glory.
And I just want to ask you, encourage you to examine your heart today. Is that desire in you when you wake up to spend time with God in the morning or whenever you set aside that time, which I guess is part of the question. Are you setting aside that time? And when you do, are you entering that time with a desire? God, I want to see you more. I want to know you more. I want to behold your glory more as I open up your word, as I spend this time with you in prayer.
And then for that to lead your praying, my praying for us to pray just like Jesus taught us to pray, our Father in Heaven, hallowed be your name. We want to see your name glorified in our lives.
So more than we want this or that to be fixed or this or that to go the way we desire. Are we praying “God show your glory in this or that even if it’s not fixed the way I would want it to or it doesn’t go the way I want it to, I want to see your glory…” Even as we pray for unreached people. Isn’t that what we’re praying for? God we want to see your glory spread in the world where your glory is not now known.
And I just want to encourage us to live with this all-consuming desire, overwhelming desire over and above circumstances, and situations in every detail of our lives. Let’s pray Exodus 33:18. Show your glory, oh God. We want to see your glory. We want others to see your glory.
This verse calls us to pray boldly for a glimpse of God’s greatness.
So let’s pray that God, we praise you for all the ways you have shown your glory. We praise you for your glory and the face of Jesus. Lord, we praise you for your glory and the way you’ve saved us, and your glory and the way you lead us and guide us and protect us. We praise you for all the specific ways that we have seen your glory on display in our lives and the world around us. And we pray right now exactly what Moses prayed thousands of years ago. Show us please your glory. We want to see more.
God, we want to know you more. We want to experience your goodness and your grace and your mercy in greater ways than we ever have before. God, we want to see your glory in the world around us. We pray that you would glorify yourself through us today. In every circumstance situation we’re walking through, we pray that you would glorify yourself. Have us point people to your glory. Help us to live in such a way that people see your glory, Lord Jesus in our lives. We pray that you would glorify yourself through leading more people around us to salvation in you.
Prayer for the Satani People
God, we pray that you would glorify yourself among the nations. We pray for the Satani people of India. Glorify yourself among this people group of 500,000, half a million of them who don’t know you, don’t know about your love for them in Jesus, glorify yourself causing the gospel to spread to the Satani people of India. We pray for that. Glorify yourself. Let your glory fill the Earth as the waters cover the seas.
And God, we pray in all this that you would make this our primary single-minded motivation today in school, in work, in life, in family, in church, in everything we do, and in every interaction we have. What Jesus prayed in John 12:28, “Father glorify your name” What Moses prayed in Exodus 33, “Show us your glory.” We want to know you more and exalt you more today. May it be so. We pray. In Jesus’ name. Amen.