Show Me Your Glory

This morning’s message is entitled, “Show Me Your Glory,” and I want us to look at God’s blessings today. I want to open by having us consider how the Lord’s blessings are similar to a jet aircraft flying at supersonic or near-sonic speeds. Did you ever hear a jet fly overhead and you looked straight up into the sky and weren’t able to spot it? But then, when you looked ahead on the horizon you finally caught a glimpse of it as it was flying away from you? You see, we can hear a small propeller-driven airplane heading our way long before it goes overhead, but a jet aircraft flying at near or supersonic speeds will have already flown over before we even hear the sound.

Did you know that God’s blessings work in a similar way? When God chooses to open up the flood gates and rain down His showers of blessing, we usually don’t realize it until after we are completely drenched. This morning, we are going to take a look at Exodus 33:18-23, and see how God wants to send His supersonic showers of blessing on those who know His Son, Jesus as Savior and Lord. I believe our message today will be one of great encouragement for anyone who is facing trials and difficulties, and for those who doubt that God wants to deliver them. If you feel that God is very far from you, then watch out, because you might just get hit with a tidal wave of blessings from out of no where!

God Reveals His Goodness (vv. 18-19)

18 And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.” 19 Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.”

It is an understatement to say that life can be hard, and if it’s not hard then you’ve either been sheltered or extremely blessed. But if you feel like life is a constant struggle, or that you are stuck in a deep hole and can’t see the light of day, then one possibility is that you have not asked God to show you His glory. That’s what Moses asked God to do. In verse 19, the Lord replied by saying, “I will make all my goodness pass before you.” God’s glory, when manifested in our life, is revealed by His goodness; which can be implied as His blessings. The Lord wants to bestow His goodness upon us, and He will do so if we just simply ask Him. If we are not experiencing God’s goodness, then perhaps it’s because we are either in a temporary state of testing of our faith – which chastening is actually a display of God’s goodness (Hebrews 12:6) – or we are simply failing to ask Him.

In 1 Chronicles 4:10, we read about a man named Jabez who cried out to the Lord, “Oh, that you would bless me indeed.” Some of us have been raised to believe that it’s wrong to ask for help from anyone, because this is similar to begging and it’s shameful to show your weakness to others. These are human ideas based on pride, and God tells us in Proverbs 6:16-17 that He hates pride. In James 4:6, we read, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble,” and it takes humility to ask for help. Now, the Greek word for “grace,” in James 4:6, is charis, meaning favor or kindness; which tells us that God will not shower us with His blessings, or His favor, unless we humble ourselves before Him and ask Him. He gives grace or favor to the humble.

So, is it selfish to ask God for a blessing? We need to understand the meaning of the word “blessing” in order to answer this question. “To bless in the biblical sense means to ask for or to impart supernatural favor. When we ask God for [His] blessings, we’re not asking for more of what we could get for ourselves. We’re crying out for the wonderful, unlimited goodness that only God has the power to know about or to give us.”(1) When we look at both Jabez and Moses’ requests, we notice that neither one of them asked for anything specific or selfish. They left it entirely up to God to decide what the blessing would be, and where, when, and how they would receive it. This type of request focuses on wanting for ourselves nothing more and nothing less than what God wants for us.

If God tells us to ask Him for a blessing, then it is not selfish to do as Moses did a say, “Please, show me Your glory,” or “Please, cause Your goodness to pass before me.” The Scripture tells us that if we do not ask for God’s blessings then we won’t receive them. In Matthew 7:7, Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you.” In James 4:2, we read, “You do not have, because you do not ask.” Jesus declared in Matthew 7:10, “If you then . . . know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” You see, God is our Father in heaven, and just as our earthly father – or parents – love to give and provide for us, God is eagerly awaiting us to ask Him to bestow His blessings on us.