When God Passes Before Us

Light of Christ by Mary Harwell Sayler

By Mary Harwell Sayler

Exodus 34:6-7: “The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed:

‘The Lord! The Lord!
God who is compassionate and merciful,
very patient,
full of great loyalty and faithfulness,
showing great loyalty to a thousand generations,
forgiving every kind of sin and rebellion,
yet by no means clearing the guilty,
punishing for their parents’ sins
their children and their grandchildren,
as well as the third and the fourth generation’,” CEB.

Prayer:

Dear loving LORD,

we praise You for passing before us

in the beauty of worship,

in the words of Your Word,

in the forgiveness

and restoration that comes to us

through Your Son, Jesus Christ.

But I don’t have Your patience, Lord,

and frankly, I don’t want to pray for it

for fear You’ll send hard trials

to help me become

ever more tolerant of others!

Forgive me, Lord.

Forgive my lack of trust in You

and my annoyance with myself.

I think I want every pore in me

to exude Your love,

but that’s not really true, is it?

Love costs a lot –

a lot of mercy,

a lot of grace,

a lot of patience,

a lot of faith,

a lot of You!

Help me, LORD, to receive You more fully. Help!

Thoughts: Grace, mercy, patience, faithfulness: These aspects of love repeatedly pass before us without acknowledgement or even awareness that God is here; God is near. I wonder which of those aspects of God’s love is most lacking in my life? Do I dare think about it? If I really, really don’t want to know, could this be a sign that I’m not placing my faith and trust in God’s everlasting love? Do I trust myself to know what’s best for me, more than I trust God?