Day 2: Revealed Through Place
Exodus 3:1–16
“This is a thin place,” a friend once said after a particularly powerful time of prayer on the hilltop where we met. “As we pray in this place, I can feel the distance between heaven and earth collapse and a deep sense that we are in the presence of God.” Sometimes a place feels different to our spirit in a way that draws us to experience His otherness, His excellence, His love, and His holiness.
In our reading today, Moses encounters a thin place that drew him with curiosity, kept him with reverence, and astounded him with revelation. The living God spoke to him. There is fear, confusion, awe, and growing faith as Moses hid his face in the presence of God. He was in a thin place that wasn’t so much about the location as it was about God’s choice to reveal Himself in that place as “I AM.”
I AM—not limited by space or time, so He is in all places at all times. In pain and confusion and darkness, God is there at work, bringing hope and good news that there is light that darkness cannot overcome (John 1:5). We can find Him in thin places, as well as any place that we call on His name.
Reflection Prayer
Father, I pause today to contemplate the holiness of Your ongoing presence in my life. Help me to notice things that make me curious today, and remind me to look for revelation of You and Your holiness. Thank You for the gift of Yourself, I AM, and help me to understand the power and revelation that You bring to an ordinary day when I recognize that You are in it. Amen.
Week 1: The Holiness of God
A. W. Tozer writes in his book The Knowledge of the Holy, “We know nothing like the divine holiness. It stands apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible and unattainable. The natural man is blind to it. He may fear God’s power and admire His wisdom, but His holiness he cannot even imagine. Only the Spirit of the Holy One can impart to the human spirit the knowledge of the holy.”
God is holy. Pastor Chip Ingram says, “He isn’t six or ten or one hundred times more holy than the best person you know. God Himself is an entirely different category in which He is the only member.”
God reveals His holiness to us in many ways, as we will see in the Scriptures this week. As we reflect on God’s holiness, how do we respond? Will we take off our shoes? Will we get on our face? Will we make every effort to keep peace? Will we confess or praise? Will we be God’s holy Church?
— Amy Roedding