My Thoughts On Exodus 33:14

Exodus 33:14 “And He said “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”

Lately it has been easy for me to slip back into old habits. We want to find something comfortable in a time where all of our comforts are being stripped. I resort to fear of the future which ultimately means my trust in the Lord often wavers. I am scared He will not go with me and even more scared I will go to a land where He does not want me. I make all these excuses. I ask God all these questions. I fear. I worry. The Lord silences me just like He silenced Moses. “Reagan my presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” Oh but how often I don’t believe this promise. 

Just a couple of verses later asks the Lord that he could see His glory. The Lord says “Behold there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock. and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.” When I was on the airplane heading to Guatemala all the way back in July I read a letter that my sister had sent with me and in it she told me to read these verses in Exodus, but I tucked the note away and waited and forgot about it until about a week later. I pulled out the letter and looked these verses up on a day where I probably couldn’t have needed them more. It is crazy looking back on that day now. I knew then that I was in the cleft of the rock. He was covering me with His hand and someday I would see His back. I would see how He worked and moved and walked and I would ultimately see His glory. I believed that, but I didn’t see it then. 

I saw Him glorified there and I will say with confidence that HE WILL DO IT AGAIN. His presence WILL go with me. He WILL give me rest. These moments are sometimes scary. I don’t understand what is going on in my heart. I don’t understand what the Lord’s end goal is here, but there I am hiding in the cleft of the rock, and even though that rock isn’t so comfortable, HE IS WITH ME THERE. His hand is covering me, protecting me, holding me in. Someday I will see clearly. Someday I will see His back and His glory. He really does have a plan in all this. I just have to rest in the cleft of the rock, knowing He has put me there. Someday He will open my eyes to HIs plan and His purpose all along, but for right now, I don’t know and that is okay.

Application: I will read this passage every day until I leave Guatemala.