Bible Reading: Exodus 33
“Now, therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight” (Exodus 33:13)
2021 is soon coming to a close. What is in our minds at the end of this year? Have we taken time to reflect on what has happened this past year, and have we surrendered our lives to God once again for the new year if that day will come by God’s will? In the midst of all your busyness at the end of this year, plus the addition of all this covid havoc, please take time to be still and meditate before God on all the things He has done for you this year.
Ask yourself these two questions before God. Firstly, has God led my life this past year? Secondly, have I grown to see His glory this past year? Ponder about how God has led your life and how He has given us spiritual growth over this past year. Ultimately, we have to ask ourselves, have we found favour in God’s sight?
If we can testify to God’s goodness and faithfulness over this past year, then praise God! But just because God led us through this past year, that doesn’t mean that God will surely lead us in the next. In Exodus 33, Moses had reached a pinnacle moment in his personal and Israel’s communal walk with God. God had valiantly led them out of slavery in Egypt. God had set His people free so that they could worship Him in the wilderness. Yet, because Israel was a stiff-necked people who made idols to replace God, whom they quickly forgot about, God said He would no longer go with them.
To this, Moses prayed in intercession. His plea for the future consisted of two petitions on the basis of God’s promise. God promised that He knew Moses by name and that Moses had found favour in God’s sight. God reaffirmed this from His mouth in verse 17, “this very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name”. Yet, Moses wanted God’s promise to be his felt experience in the coming future. Therefore, he petitioned, “please show me your ways that I may know you” so that he could experientially know God’s favour for Him.
As we face the new year, may this be our prayer also. Pray that God may continue to show His clear leading in our everyday lives. God is leading us if we are growing to know Him and see Him in His glory. So, we must pray that we may know Him more and more. All in all, pray that God’s promise of His favour towards us in Christ (read Romans 8 if you need the reassurance of this promise) may be our lived everyday experience. Only then will we be able to glorify Him and enjoy Him simultaneously, revering at the glories of God’s grace which is our ultimate end, as Ephesians 1 and 2 explains.
May God have mercy on us all in these last few days of 2021!
“Teach me your way, O LORD, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear your name.” (Psalm 86:11) In Jesus’ name, amen.”
