Dears in Christ,

Greetings to you in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Today, I want to draw your attention to a simple, yet powerful prayer done by two great men in the Bible.

Exodus 33:18, Then Moses said, “I pray you, show me Your glory!”

God answered him and made all goodness pass in front of him.

Exodus 34: 6,7 says this, “then the LORD passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in loving kindness and truth; who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.” Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship”

We derive two things from these verses:

• He is the God who is compassionate and merciful, he wants to reveal himself to us.
• Moses made haste to bow low toward the earth and worship.” We can know about God, and even pray hard, but to truly worship him we need to know His glory.

In 2nd Chronicles 7 verses 1,2 and 3  “Now when Solomon had finished praying, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering and the sacrifices, and the glory of the LORD filled the house. The priests could not enter into the house of the LORD because the glory of the LORD filled the LORD’S house. All the sons of Israel, seeing the fire come down and the glory of the LORD upon the house, bowed down on the pavement with their faces to the ground, and they worshiped and gave praise to the LORD, saying, “Truly He is good, truly His loving kindness is everlasting.”

Now, if we carefully read Solomon’s prayer, we see that he appealed to God’s kindness and compassion. The running theme in his prayer was this, “If we sin and repent, please listen to us. We need you.” Also we see the effect of the Glory, the people bowed down.

So how does this two incidents concern us?

Dears in Christ, today we are either seeking after our own glory, or the glory in the things of the world. Neither of those is going to satisfy us. Malcolm Muggeridge says this, “It is only possible to succeed at second-rate pursuits - like becoming a millionaire or a prime minister, winning a war or landing on the moon.

First-rate pursuits - involving, as they must, trying to understand what life is about and trying to convey that understanding - inevitably result in a sense of failure."

Here, he meant understanding, However, I would like to translate that to the knowledge of God.

Our souls need to cling to something; they need to be attached to an object worthy of its attention. They were not made to be an island. I would like to invite you today to seek higher things. Seek the glory of God. Seek to know God. We are of better standing than Moses or Solomon through the blood of Christ.

The below is an excerpt from an article “The war within” It speaks of a pastor’s fight against lust, and how the book “What I believe: Mauriac, François” gave him the real perspective on sin.

“After brazenly denying the most common reasons I have heard against succumbing to a life filled with lust, Mauriac concludes that there is only one reason to seek purity. It is the reason Christ proposed in the Beatitudes: "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." Purity, says Mauriac, is the condition for a higher love—for a possession superior to all possessions: God himself.

Mauriac goes on to describe how most of our arguments for purity are negative arguments: Be pure, or you will feel guilty, or your marriage will fail, or you will be punished. But the Beatitudes clearly indicate a positive argument that fits neatly with the Bible's pattern in describing sins. Sins are not a list of petty irritations drawn up for the sake of a jealous God. They are, rather, a description of the impediments to spiritual growth. We are the ones who suffer if we sin, by forfeiting the development of character and Christ-likeness that would have resulted if we had not sinned.

The thought hit me like a bell rung in a dark, silent hall. So far, none of the scary, negative arguments against lust had succeeded in keeping me from it. Fear and guilt simply did not give me resolve; they added self-hatred to my problems. But here was a description of what I was missing by continuing to harbor lust: I was limiting my own intimacy with God. The love he offers is so transcendent and possessing that it requires our faculties to be purified and cleansed before we can possibly contain it. Could he, in fact, substitute another thirst and another hunger for the one I had never filled? Would Living Water somehow quench lust? That was the gamble of faith.”

I do not believe that there is anything greater than seeing the glory of God and being a vessel to display his Glory. True we can live our nested lives, shying away from eternal questions. But why live a life of second-class citizen when we have our Father in heaven?

Seek higher things for we were made for that. Seek to know God and his Glory. God bless you.

Bro Gideon Paul Rufus

God's love missions family