The Lord is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. The Lord is good to all, and His mercy is over all that He has made. (Verses 8-9)
The Lord passed before Moses and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin..." Exodus 34
Given the intricacies of His creation, the exquisite attention to detail, God must have a keen interest in all that He has made. Knows how it works and keeps it going. When God passed by Moses, it was in response to the prophet's request to know God and His ways. Now! In the moment I need to see You, understand You. So God hid Moses in the cleft of a rock, a hollow space just big enough for him to stand, and let His glory pass before His servant. The next thing God did was pronounce Who He is. The summation of the entire Bible's illustration of our God. Merciful, loving, gracious, slow to anger, forgiving and just. On every page, from cover to cover, it is the same God revealing His character and propelling His-story. Our God is good. And He pronounced all He made to be good.
I know there are those who don't believe in a personal God. For some it is because if God is personally involved in our lives, they couldn't possibly see Him as good. Too much trouble in their stories. Too much heartache. And I understand that if we loiter on the outside of relationship with God, we can't actually experience Him. Those who read the Old Testament and rail at an angry, malevolent God don't know Him. But, as with Moses, those of us who cry out, "I want to know You!" will get an answer. Maybe not in a passing by with wind and fire, but He promises to reveal Himself to anyone who truly seeks Him. "Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me and I will hear you. You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29) God isn't hiding. Nor is He standing above it all tapping His feet waiting for us to straighten up. He is waiting to hear from us. We will not see God's goodness by standing outside the window and looking in. We must open the door and go inside where His family is, where He lives to take care of us, His kids. Otherwise, we are just judging the neighbor's dad with no real knowledge of what it's like to be His child.
Some reject a personal God because He'll make them change--give up stuff they have or things they are doing. It's silly to me to think that God would demand we change before we have the power to even do so. How can we clean up in order to go to God? How do we even know what He might ask us to relinquish? We come to Jesus just like we are. He changes us from the inside out. Makes us new. Sets within us the same Spirit that powerfully raised Him from the dead. Gives us dunamis. The dynamite power that blasts out the old crud and fills us with new life. Only He can do that. You come as you are. Trust me, you won't stay that way. Not if you really want to know this God Who is good to all He has created. Not if you understand the height and depth of His unfathomable love. It transforms us because it's so unbelievably powerful--the knowledge we are accepted in Christ by the God of All.
I would pray that all those who have preconceived ideas about God being personally interested with them, give asking Him to reveal Himself in their lives a try. What if all this time you've been going it alone, thinking that if you trust God, He'll disappoint? What if He doesn't? What if all the attributes by which He defines Himself could be poured out on you? Seems to me like it's worth a shot.
On the eve of this Thanksgiving I am once again blown away as I think of how loved I am. First by God, without Whose compassion I am incapable of squeezing out even an ounce of charity. If I was able to in the past, it was self-centered and pious. I'm thankful for the freedom in Christ to truly be who I am--the person I was created to be. Thankful that my God doesn't kick me to the curb at every blunder. He's patient with me, knowing I'm dust, but God's not about to leave me the way He found me. He wants to grow me up, as any good father would. His mercy hangs over everything. His grace hovers over our lives. Thank you, Father, for Your great goodness. To life!!!
The Lord passed before Moses and proclaimed, "The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin..." Exodus 34
Given the intricacies of His creation, the exquisite attention to detail, God must have a keen interest in all that He has made. Knows how it works and keeps it going. When God passed by Moses, it was in response to the prophet's request to know God and His ways. Now! In the moment I need to see You, understand You. So God hid Moses in the cleft of a rock, a hollow space just big enough for him to stand, and let His glory pass before His servant. The next thing God did was pronounce Who He is. The summation of the entire Bible's illustration of our God. Merciful, loving, gracious, slow to anger, forgiving and just. On every page, from cover to cover, it is the same God revealing His character and propelling His-story. Our God is good. And He pronounced all He made to be good.
I know there are those who don't believe in a personal God. For some it is because if God is personally involved in our lives, they couldn't possibly see Him as good. Too much trouble in their stories. Too much heartache. And I understand that if we loiter on the outside of relationship with God, we can't actually experience Him. Those who read the Old Testament and rail at an angry, malevolent God don't know Him. But, as with Moses, those of us who cry out, "I want to know You!" will get an answer. Maybe not in a passing by with wind and fire, but He promises to reveal Himself to anyone who truly seeks Him. "Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me and I will hear you. You will seek Me and find Me, when you seek Me with all your heart." (Jeremiah 29) God isn't hiding. Nor is He standing above it all tapping His feet waiting for us to straighten up. He is waiting to hear from us. We will not see God's goodness by standing outside the window and looking in. We must open the door and go inside where His family is, where He lives to take care of us, His kids. Otherwise, we are just judging the neighbor's dad with no real knowledge of what it's like to be His child.
Some reject a personal God because He'll make them change--give up stuff they have or things they are doing. It's silly to me to think that God would demand we change before we have the power to even do so. How can we clean up in order to go to God? How do we even know what He might ask us to relinquish? We come to Jesus just like we are. He changes us from the inside out. Makes us new. Sets within us the same Spirit that powerfully raised Him from the dead. Gives us dunamis. The dynamite power that blasts out the old crud and fills us with new life. Only He can do that. You come as you are. Trust me, you won't stay that way. Not if you really want to know this God Who is good to all He has created. Not if you understand the height and depth of His unfathomable love. It transforms us because it's so unbelievably powerful--the knowledge we are accepted in Christ by the God of All.
I would pray that all those who have preconceived ideas about God being personally interested with them, give asking Him to reveal Himself in their lives a try. What if all this time you've been going it alone, thinking that if you trust God, He'll disappoint? What if He doesn't? What if all the attributes by which He defines Himself could be poured out on you? Seems to me like it's worth a shot.
On the eve of this Thanksgiving I am once again blown away as I think of how loved I am. First by God, without Whose compassion I am incapable of squeezing out even an ounce of charity. If I was able to in the past, it was self-centered and pious. I'm thankful for the freedom in Christ to truly be who I am--the person I was created to be. Thankful that my God doesn't kick me to the curb at every blunder. He's patient with me, knowing I'm dust, but God's not about to leave me the way He found me. He wants to grow me up, as any good father would. His mercy hangs over everything. His grace hovers over our lives. Thank you, Father, for Your great goodness. To life!!!
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