“…you are mine.”
Remember last blog how I invited you to meditate on the attributes of God using scripture? This week I’d like to continue this theme a bit. Hopefully you’ve been able to find a moment with the Lord to ponder which attributes, either positive or negative, you project onto your Heavenly Father. Did the Holy spirit unveil any wounds or scars from these attributes? The process of healing is not an easy one. The process of becoming soft and malleable to God’s hand is painful, even. When I think of Ezekiel 36:26 (the scripture verse that this blog is inspired by), of stone becoming flesh, I picture it almost like when your foot has fallen asleep and stiff. When you try to stand on it, it’s very painful at first, bursting with pin pricks, but slowly, as you regain movement, you regain proper feeling and purpose in your foot all over again. Moving your foot may feel like a hundred fire ants crawling on you, but the more you move it, the more they crawl away. The hope of these writings is to walk through those tingles alongside you as someone who is experiencing it with you and not just as someone talking at you from the other side.
I’ll be honest, over the past few weeks and blogs, I have talked a lot about gifts, a lot about waiting, a lot about trust. Part of that is due to the fact we’ve just walked out of the Christmas season and these are all beautiful themes to ponder during that time, but the bigger part of it because these are some heavy things I’ve personally been praying through with God. Before I even posed the question “Who do you say that I am?” to you guys, I posed it to myself. Through that, I’ve had a lot of come-to-Jesus moments where I am approaching Him like a scared child with my hands over my eyes peeking out through my fingers. Why? Because I know what He will show me will be hard, and I know the healing He invites me to will hurt.
I did a beautiful devotional by Blessed is She during advent and one of the days it had me give God a new name. One that was completely personal to me. I had already been pondering God’s attributes and character long before this devo, but this exercise was a beautiful step towards reconciling those false attributes I had been attaching to Him and replacing them with truth.
Can I tell you the name I gave Him?
Father of Good Will.
I’ve been writing about those themes because they have been what I’ve struggled with. So what I did was link a new name based on which attributes I learned I negatively associate with him. I wasn’t trusting the Lord to give good gifts. I wasn’t believing I was worthy of them or that He even wanted to give any gifts for that matter (which is just wholly untrue because my entire life is a testimony of gifts). I had to remind myself that He does indeed will my good. He wills the pure deisres of my heart to come to pass. He wills that I draw near to Him and He wills that I become soft and melt in His embrace.
Remember that love story I was telling you about? The Bible? Yeah, that one. Not only does it reveal all those fun attributes we looked over last week, but it also just straight up names our God. Each name unique to a people, prophecy, or covenant. Lets take a look at a few of these names.
Elohim, Hebrew for “God” or “Mighty Creator”
Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth…”
El-shaddai, Hebrew for “God Almighty”
Genesis 17:1 “…The Lord appeared to Abraham and said: I am God the Almighty.”
Yahweh, Hebrew for “I AM”, Yahweh translated to English is LORD in all caps
Exodus 3:14-15 “God replied to Moses: I am who I am. Then He added: this is what you will tell the Israelites: I AM has sent me to you…this is my name forever, this is my title for all generations.”
Psalm 23:1 “The LORD is my Shepherd, there is nothing I lack.”
Adonai, Hebrew for “Lord” meaning “master, ruler”
Exodus 4:10 “Moses said the the LORD, “If you please my Lord, i have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor now that you have spoken to your servant; but I am slow of speech and tongue.”
He has many names as we can see, and many more where that came from. What is a name that speaks to you? If none of these resonate with you, try naming Him yourself. Does it feel weird? Don’t worry. Many of the names we know God by today are names Given to Him by His very own people. They would often use either the Hebrew word for God, “El”, or Lord, “Yahweh”, and then attached a descriptor or attribute to it. The first person to do this was actually Hagar in Genesis chapter 16:
El-Roi, Hebrew for “The God who sees” Spoken by Hagar after her mistreatment from Sarai.
Genesis 16:13 “The Lord who spoke to her she gave a name saying, “You are the God who sees me.”
Yahweh-Jireh, Hebrew for “The Lord will Provide” Spoken by Abraham after the (almost) sacrifice of Isaac.
Genesis 22:14 “Abraham named that place Yahweh-Yireh; hence the people today say “On the mountain, the Lord will provide.”
Yahweh-Rapha, Hebrew for “The God who heals”
Exodus 15:26 “…for I, the LORD, am your healer.”
Aren’t those beautiful? I invite you to take these verses deeper, maybe even reading the full story for context of how the Lord’s people came to give Him His names. Let the Holy Spirit guide you in choosing a name that is personal to you and the things that God has done for you. It can be a name to reverse the negative attributes or enhance the positive ones you associate with Him. It can be new or can be one of the ancient times we find in scripture.
Whatever you decide to call him, I urge you to remember this verse that the Lord has declared over you:
“Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called by name and you are mine.” (Isaiah 43:1)
With Heart, Ellie
