A example to show us what happens when we dare to be honest with God

By Dean Collins

Finding the courage and the faith to be honest with God might be a growth step for all of us.

You can define courage many different ways. Some dictionaries say courage is mental or moral strength to face challenges or persevere. Others describe courage as a quality of mind and spirit that allows us to endure pain or experience grief or even danger. So does it take courage to talk with God?

I’ll admit that most of the time I am not aware of being fearful when I pray. Usually prayer is comfortable and intimate. The times in my life when I was less focused on prayer were more because of my laziness than my fear. But if I am honest, there are topics I sometimes avoid in my prayers. They might be hard things in Scripture I don’t understand or a situation I am navigating where I wish God made his presence more obvious. These are the moments when I need courage to pray.

What is it that we fear in those conversations with God? It might be that we are afraid God will answer our question or our prayers, but the answers will not be what we want to hear. We may hold back from God because we don’t want to face one of the outcomes he may choose for us. Honestly approaching God takes courage.

Difficult situation

Exodus chapters 32—34 give us a picture of Moses in a difficult situation, and Moses doesn’t appear to hold back or hesitate. God’s chosen people had persuaded Aaron to mold a golden calf for them to worship. Meanwhile, Moses and God are in conversations on Mount Sinai while everyone down below had literally lost their minds and hearts for God. Moses immediately began to dissuade God from a course of action that in Moses’s opinion would damage God’s reputation with the Egyptians and violate a promise God made to Abraham and repeated to Issac and Jacob.

After Moses came off the mountain and displayed some righteous indignation in front of the people of Israel, he also gave them a taste of their own medicine. He literally ground the golden calf down and mixed it with water and made the Israelites drink it in shame. And the next day Moses gave them a clear and detailed description of their great sin before God. Then he left them after telling the people he would now try and make atonement for their sin.

Bold prayers

Moses returned to God and pleaded for their forgiveness and added this bold comment to God: “But now, if you will forgive their sin—but if not, please blot me out of your book that you have written.“What a bold and courageous prayer, maybe even a foolish thing, to say to God! Can you imagine telling God that if he won’t do something to just write you out of the script? Sounds dangerous to me.

The dialogue continues and is rich in color. God basically told Moses he will forgive who he will forgive and punish who he will punish. He then tells Moses to go and lead the people to the promised land but that he (God) would send an angel instead of going himself. We don’t know the time span of this conversation, but when Moses tells the people that God isn’t going with them on the journey lest he burn them up in anger, they appropriately repent.

Some time passed, and Moses reengaged his conversation with God. Moses pushed God, because God hadn’t given him a specific and visible angel or guide for the journey. And Moses proceeded to remind God how God himself said he viewed Moses. “You know my name and you said I had favor in your eyes,” Moses prayed. “Therefore show me your ways.”

Do you see how differently Moses prays than we do? We pray a lot of “wouldn’t it be great God” kind of prayers. Moses reminds God of his promises and asks him to honor his Word. I’m pretty sure God will never push back on us when we quote his promises back to him.

Glory glimpsed

After some heart-to-heart requests of God (you might call them challenges), Moses needed some reassurance. He needed more than words. Moses asked that God would show him his glory. Here was God’s response: “I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name ‘The Lord.’ And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.”

God instructed Moses to stand in the cleft of the rock. And when he did, God came by and covered Moses’s face because according to God, Moses would not be able to live if he saw God’s face. God gave him a glimpse of his glory to give Moses assurance and evidence that he was with him and would go with him on the journey to the promised land.

God renewed his covenant and inscribed two more stone tablets to replace the ones Moses had broken in anger. And Moses stayed with God on the mountain for 40 days.

Trusting God

Maybe we need extreme situations before we find the courage and faith to pray as Moses did. Casual faith may require only casual prayers. But last time I checked we who claim belief in Jesus have been called into action. And if we are called to extend God’s reign to the places around us, then that task will require bolder prayers. One reason it will require these bold prayers is that we’ll always face resistance from the enemy of God when we advance the mission of God.

Trusting God’s sovereignty and his providence when life seems darkest requires faith, courage, and bold prayer. God will never move back when we are honest with him about our situation or even our feelings about our situation. God will hold you secure when you are between a rock and a hard place. He specializes in holding his beloved in the cleft of the rock until the storms pass and we can fully see his face in glory.

Your time with God’s Word
Exodus‬ ‭32:30-35‬; ‭33:12-23‬; ‭34:1-10, 27-28‬ ‭ESV

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Photo by Aaron Burden on Unsplash