Prepare Our Hearts

What is your mission, your calling, your purpose? As a Christian we often wrestle with these types of questions. In fact, we can wrestle so long with this that we feel like we have failed or missed some kind of mark with our lives. In Exodus we read of Moses’ interaction with God. Moses sought God, specifically His glory and presence.

Exodus 33:7-23 (ESV)

⁷ Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the tent of meeting. And everyone who sought the Lord would go out to the tent of meeting, which was outside the camp. ⁸ Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would rise up, and each would stand at his tent door, and watch Moses until he had gone into the tent. ⁹ When Moses entered the tent, the pillar of cloud would descend and stand at the entrance of the tent, and the Lord^[a] would speak with Moses. ¹⁰ And when all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the tent, all the people would rise up and worship, each at his tent door. ¹¹ Thus the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. When Moses turned again into the camp, his assistant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, would not depart from the tent.

¹² Moses said to the Lord, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ ¹³ Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” ¹⁴ And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” ¹⁵ And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. ¹⁶ For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”

¹⁷ And the Lord said to Moses, “This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name.” ¹⁸ Moses said, “Please show me your glory.” ¹⁹ And he said, “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. ²⁰ But,” he said, “you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live.” ²¹ And the Lord said, “Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, ²² 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. ²³ Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen.”

Notice in verse 11 how God would speak to Moses. It was “face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” Yet, later we read of how God cannot show His face to him, or he will die. This might lead us to think a separation took place, and Moses was no longer able to see him. Commentators Walvoord and Zuck (1985) explain, “God would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend that is, clearly and openly. Moses’ speaking “face to face” with God does not contradict the fact that he was not allowed to see God’s face as “face to face” is a figurative expression suggesting openness and friendship” (p.157).  You see, Moses was seeking God and God was answering him, on an intimate friend-like level. Moses was bold and this caused God to have favor on him.

As we seek to serve God through our callings, through finding our missions, we must not forget that God wants us to be in communion with Him. He wants us to be so in touch with Him that we call each other “friends.” If you are worried endlessly about your “calling” let me assure you that the more you seek out God, the more you are in communion with Christ the more you will live your calling. Listen to what Peter wrote:

2 Peter 1:3-4

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, ⁴ by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 

He has called you, like He called Moses, to seek His glory. He wants you to partake in His divine nature escaping the sin of the world. That’s His purpose for you, that’s His mission.

Dear Christian, be at peace today, knowing that the more you seek Him, the more you are living your mission, your calling and your purpose.