"All my Goodness"

Exodus 33; 12-23

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. 

Back in Exodus 33 again today.  This conversation between the LORD & Moses has me completely captivated.  The intimacy of this moment, and the truth contained therein.  God doesn't pull any punches, he lays it out "I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy."  He is after all God of the Universe and HE is in charge.  This is a different encounter than in the book of Job when man is questioning God, this is God saying it as a part of who HE is.  Moses asked the LORD to "show me your glory".  I LOVE the reply "I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim before you my name The LORD".  He goes on to tell moses where to stand on the rock because His glory is so powerful that he must be protected and God covered moses with his hand until He had passed by. 
Again tying this back to prayer.  Prayer is talking to God like talking to a friend.  In this passage, we see it taken to a whole new level.  This is the kind of prayer life that we should all aspire to have.  The kind of prayer life where we literally are touched by the hand of God, and all of His goodness passes in front of us.  Where we find our will aligning to His and know that HE IS GOOD!