Series: When God Isn’t There Week 3: Chasing Our Absent God
The more we get of God, the more we want of God. More wants more. There is a presence of God that is absent to us—His actual presence.
Exodus 33:18.
This is the Moses Principle: more wants more. The more Moses got of God, the more Moses wanted of God. The more we experience of God in this life, the more of God we will desire.
But, your ability to sense absence may actually be a clue of your love for God. Absence isn’t always a curse; sometimes it’s a clue.
Exodus 33:19-20. There is a form of God we long to see that would kill us if we saw it. The reason for separation is our sin & God’s holiness. God told Moses that He would allow him to see all of His goodness.
God wants to give us more of Himself. God honors the Moses Principle. More wants more. More gives more.
Understand this: while you are on this earth, God will always feel absent to some degree. In God’s kindness He wants to give us the desires of our hearts, so He places each of us in the cleft of the rock. James 4:8.
Exodus 33:19.
God already told Moses one form of His name: Exodus 3:14.
EXODUS 34:6-7. God didn’t just want Moses to see Him, but to know Him. God wants to be known, not just experienced. His presence conveys purpose.
EXODUS 19:16-20. The Israelites filled the distance between them & God with idolatry. In their feelings of absence, they wanted more.
We forsake the presence of God for the presence of pleasure. Idolatry is when we take any thing & make it everything. More wants more of the god it has designed.
In our journey for more of God, we end up wanting more than God. We want idols to be present where God is absent. Absence is incurable when idols are the remedy.
EXODUS 32:20. Idolatry eventually turns our hearts sour & sick.
EXODUS 34:14. God’s jealousy is about what God most wants: to give us Himself. God is jealous for our joy & His glory. When God is not the center of our lives, we rob ourselves of our ultimate joy.
The imprint of God’s presence with Moses was evident to all.
2 CORINTHIANS 3:7,9, 10-11, 18.
God is making His glory visible in us. God is becoming more present to the world as we are transformed into the image of God.
The world wants more of God.
