God’s grace is the most impacting gift a person can receive. We might say His ‘gracelets’ (small droplets of His grace) come in innumerable ways. It’s likely I receive more than I’m conscious of.
As for me, I am most grateful for each and every pack of grace I receive. I’m sure that is true for each of us. This makes it more interesting to read that Moses was interested in receiving even more of His grace. He requested of God, “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.” Exodus 33:13 ESV.
Knowing God as well as he did, he understood that the path to receiving more grace (favor) from Him was to discover more of His ways. His ways refer to how He deals with us. His ways entail what he wants to do. The ways of God are the choices He makes concerning us. His ways are higher than our ways. (Isaiah55:9) He deals with this person one way and with another person a different way. His ways are what He deems best in each situation. We will never be able to learn all His ways, but we can learn more of them. Why is that so important?
Moses believed that understanding God’s actions was the quickest route to a deeper relationship with Him. Experiential knowledge of Him, as described by Paul, leads to spiritual maturity, which is the “measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:13) Experiential knowledge of Him is the pipeline through which we receive the most possible gracelets from God! Furthermore, each such encounter with Him changes us on the inside.
How, then, might we learn more of God’s ways? We must first experience His presence, which gives us a fresh revelation of Him (another gracelet). According to Ezekiel 36:25-27, this would look like what we experienced in our salvation or regeneration. Saul/Paul’s salvation experience on the road to Damascus offers the most vivid effect of a fresh revelation or an encounter with God. It is transforming. An encounter with God, no matter how intense it might be, is transforming! The more we gaze upon Him, the more we are transformed into the same image from glory to glory. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
I have found the most consistent time I experience an encounter with Him is when I deeply reflect on verses in the Bible, especially when I have to wrestle with the Spirit to seek to find answers to better understand something it says. When He reveals a meaning to me, it normally discloses or at least reminds me of one of His ways. That is why I am such an advocate of asking God hard questions about what He has inspired to be written in scripture. There is absolutely nothing I thrive more on than encounters with Him, no matter when or through what means they may occur. Each experience reminds me of the request Moses made of God—PLEASE God, show me more and more of Your ways so that I can know You more intimately. The shadow effect of those times is receiving more of His grace!
I honestly want each and every person I know whether, it be in person or through something I write, to encounter God in their own personal way. I know it will to some degree literally transform whoever leans hard into seeking an authentic encounter with the Almighty God! I am certain from what the Bible teaches, He is more passionate about meeting with each of us than we are about meeting with Him. It is our level of seriousness to encounter Him that limits meeting with Him. He knows when we have surrendered it all just to connect with Him.