A Shining Face
What a wonderful gift we have in prayer. To be able to come to the Father - the Creator of all things - and speak with Him is quite a blessing. And we have a Mediator. We know that we can’t always come up with the right words to express the thoughts and feelings that we have, but we have help in speaking to the Lord. We know that the Spirit and the Son make intercession for us (Rom. 8:26, 34).
Do we sometimes forget the magnificence that is experienced when praying to our Heavenly Father? It is easy to just 'speak to the air'. But we should be humble and feel in awe when going to God in prayer. After approaching God and speaking with Him we should radiate.
We can look in the old testament and read of Moses and how his face shone so brightly after speaking with the Lord. In Exodus 4:29-35 we read that Moses' face became very bright after speaking with the Lord on Mount Sinai. In verse 30 it reads, “So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him.”
Moses face would shine so brightly. He would even need to cover his face because of the immense light. Whenever he spoke to the children of Israel he would put the veil over his face; he would then take it off to speak with the Lord.
Each time Moses spoke with the Lord, in Exodus 4, he was radiant. His face shone brightly and those around him knew that he had spoken with God. But what about us? Does our face shine after speaking with God?
Of course, our face won’t shine like Moses, but there should be some internal brightening and radiance when we go to God in prayer and speak with Him. We should receive comfort and joy in being able to communicate with the Great Almighty. There should be a strengthening and brightening of the spirit when we talk to our Master.
In Matthew 5:13-16 we read of believers being the light of the world, as well as the salt of the earth. Verse 14 reads, “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden.” We should not be able to hide that light that is in us, nor should we want to.
We need to “Let [our] light so shine before men” so that others can see that we are different. And each time we speak with the Lord in prayer or through studying His word that light should grow stronger. As we live for the Lord, our face should shine.
-- John Thrower Jr.