I used to pray or sing about the Lord showing His glory. In a group setting, we would enthusiastically call upon the Lord to show His glory or sing that His glory filled the temple—with our arms raised, tears streaming down faces, people falling to their knees, lots of shaking and baking, and some doing the Pentecostal shuffle. Sometimes these events fell flat for me. I sat there completely disconnected, watching everyone else launch into the sky. But there was nothing wrong with me. I simply wanted to connect with the Lord, person to person, and eventually it became clearer to me how I could do that and have a true encounter with His heartfelt love.
In Exodus 33:18–19, Moses asks the Lord to show him His glory. The Lord instead said His goodness would pass before him. That goodness was entirely relational, not flash and dazzle. His goodness was about compassion, mercy, forgiveness, patience, and restoration. It was a heart-to-heart connection, and we can all have that in deeper ways by opening up to Him.
Over the years in my walk with Him, being honest about all my issues has always caused Him to reveal Himself as loving, patient, welcoming, kind, and empathetic. He always reframes my struggles through His perspective, where I receive insight, understanding, wisdom, and most of all, peace. The goodness He shows me is what I like to call His glory. His love is His awesome, crowning glory. He wants an unfiltered relationship with us where He can handle our rawest emotional reality. He fully welcomes fearless conversation and confession. This is where we see His gracious persona and the friendship that was always there.
When we confess every secret to Him without fear, it is, in essence, the beginning of victory. The minute we admit stuff to Him, it loses its power, and we are sprung from anything that traps us. Jesus' love is mighty and victorious, setting us free to be our true selves in Him.
It never occurred to me that revealing my deepest, darkest secrets and desires would lead to understanding what a tender and kind person God is. I discovered He is loyal to us and fully vested in our well-being and growth, no matter how long it takes, because we are His precious sons and daughters. He is the God of Warmth.
Hebrews 4:15–16 eventually made sense to me as I continued to go deeper with Him with all my stuff: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin. Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.”
Take time to listen to Him after you have opened up to Him. Confession is like an exchange where we divulge everything to Him, and then He divulges everything to us—which is His goodness. It’s this goodness that we become more and more like, and this is what we take into the world with us. Modeling our lives after His heart toward us is how we live out the Great Commission. His goodness passes through us to the world.
Proverbs 3:5–6: Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths straight.
Blessings!
Bill Hernandez
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