What Do You Want? (Exodus 33:7-23 )

If you could ask God for anything what would it be? Depending on where we are in life might have something to do with what we would ask. Would we ask for money, a car, a new job, a new house, or other material things? Or, would we ask for health, food, clothes, and enough to get by? If you could ask God for anything what would it be? It's an interesting question and our answer as to what we would ask for could tell a lot about where we are in our walk with God. What we ask for from God says a lot about ourselves. Did you ever think of that?

When we are a newly Born-Again in Christ Jesus, just like a young baby or toddler who has just learned to speak, we act pretty much the same. We've yet to understand that God is going to take care of all of our needs, watch over us, lead us, guide us, and protect us. We see it in His Word, but it hasn't sunk from our heads into our hearts yet. So as young baby Christians we pray things like, "Jesus, bless me. Jesus, feed me. Jesus, give me. Jesus, I want. Jesus, I need. Jesus, do this. Jesus, do that." We don't yet pray on a higher level. We don't think beyond our own needs.

After awhile, hopefully, we reach the point in our relationship with God where we understand that He's promised to meet our needs according to His glorious riches and that while we give thanks always for those necessities, we don't have to go to Him daily to ask for them, He's promised we would have them and that He would daily supply our need. Thus, we move on in our prayer life and begin to pray about other things. We come to the place where we realize that there is a whole lot more to God than just asking Him to bless us. We come to understand that He is more than a big vending machine or some Divine charity organization. If you could ask God for anything what would it be?

Moses and God

There was a man who believed on God for his deliverance and God saved him. The man soon discovered that God supplied him and all of his people with food and water everyday. God made sure to meet their needs, just like He had promised to do. But there came a time when this man understood that God was serious when He said He'd meet their needs. That truth had dropped from his head to his heart. Now he had a hunger for more spiritual things. His prayer life began to change.

Moses meets with God and has the opportunity to ask Him for anything in the universe. I think God would have given him anything he wanted. Moses didn't ask for more food. Moses didn't ask for gold or silver. Moses didn't ask for prestige or a title. Moses didn't ask for things. But Moses didn't desire things, or riches. Moses didn't care about a title or some kind of princely honor. No, Moses had a desire for something far deeper, something higher, something beyond himself, something eternal, something spiritual, etc. Moses had just two requests: "show me Your way," and "show me Your glory."

Exodus 33:13
"Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know you and that I may find grace in Your sight." - NKJV

Exodus 33:18
"Please, show me Your glory." - NKJV

Wow! Moses could've ask for anything and he did, "Lord, show me Your ways and show me Your glory!" And does this ever tell us what's inside this man's heart? Jesus told us…

Matthew 12:34b
"For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks." - NKJV

Moses' two prayer requests poured forth so easily because they had been stored up in his heart. This is what he was longing for. This is what he had been waiting to see. This is what he must have dreamed about for so long. He must have thought, "if I ever get the chance…if God ever asks me…if God should allow me the privilege to request something I know what I want."

Now how many of you know that God already knew what Moses was going to ask? You see, God sees our hearts and God certainly knew what was in Moses' heart that day. God knew his motives were pure; they weren't out of some selfish gain or prideful egocentricity. Moses was motivated by his love for Jehovah and his personal desire to know in as intimate detail as possible this God of Israel. Moses both loved and feared God, but he trusted in His mercy enough to make his requests known. He must have thought, "Well, if I'm going to ask, I might as well do it now. If I offend Him, He knows I'm not trying to, it's just, I have no interest in anything else. I want to know Him at any cost."

One of the keys to getting to know God is at the heart of Moses' prayer: DESIRE! Moses wanted to know God. Moses had a passion for His presence. Moses had lost his appetite for other people and other things. He wanted to know God. And guess what? God will always answer that kind of prayer.

What do you want? I know what I want - to know God more today than I did yesterday and to continually have a passion for His Presence. Nothing else will truly satisfy the deep longing in our souls. Once we experience the Presence of the Lord, we are ruined for anything else. Everything we truly need flows out of our seeking Him first. Rather than seek His hands let's seek His Face! Let's seek to know Him more! Let's seek His healing Presence! Let's tell Him what we want!

David M. Edwards is a worship singer/songwriter and author of Worship 365: The Power of a Worshiping Life (Broadman & Holman Publishers) you can learn more about his ministry at: www.davidmedwards.com