I have been living out of the trenches of life the past few months. Ever been there? When nothing seems like its going the way you had expected? Crazy days merge into a crazy week that becomes a crazy month?? Ups and downs and kids and a husband thrown into the mix. Meal planning and school work, dentist visits, play dates, and games and practices galore. What was it I was supposed to remember? I know I have forgotten something. Seems like you can’t catch a minute to stop and breathe?? Feeling like you’ve been beaten up and left in the ditch crying? Deep inside, you know that the Lord is near and will never leave you, but the feelings can overwhelm and paralyze at times and make you feel so totally alone.
As I’ve been reflecting back over the past year or three, I am constantly reminded that God has kept true to his Word through these ups and downs of my life and my grief. He has been so very faithful to his ancient promises. He has been so close to me my entire life, from the time of conception until now. My life has been a miracle from the very beginning. It’s the remembering and re-membering that I struggle with.
In my daily reading I came across the following passage that really spoke to me. I know I’ve read this before but it was like new eyes had read it this time. The very phrases; call on his name, Remember the wonders he had done! Praise the Lord He is near to me and is ever listening to me when I praise Him, give thanks, or need anything!
Psalm 105:1-5 says:
Give thanks to the LORD, call on his name;
Make known among the nations what he has done. …
Look to the LORD and his strength;
Seek his face always.
Remember the wonders he has done, his miracles, and the judgments he pronounced,
Dig in with me for a minute, verse one talks of giving thanks and calling on his name. LORD. He is our Lord and Master, plain and simple. If, we are born again Christians and have professed faith in Jesus as our Savior, then indeed He is our one and only Lord and Master. No matter what our current needs are, our circumstances, our LORD will hear when we call on his name. Throughout the bible there are literally hundreds and hundreds of names for the LORD depending on the content, have a peek for yourself.
So what’s the big deal about His name anyway? Does God have “good” names and ” bad” names? Aren’t they all really the same, Lord or God? Meaning a higher power over us? Yes, but the more we get to know the character of God and build our relationship with Him through reading the Word and prayer, things get to be so much sweeter and more personal. Doesn’t it make you light up inside when someone calls you by name, the fact they care enough to know and use your name? Imagine how God must feel when we learn to call on him by one of his many specific names?
I read a quote recently that simply read,
Bam! Does that truth hit you as hard as it hit me when I first read that? If not, let it really soak down into your heart for a second. Names carry so much weight to them. They tell of the wonderful and sometimes frightening characteristics of a person. Some names we tend to believe and respond to easier depending on what we are going through at the time. If we are afraid and overwhelmed, knowing that we can call on Jehovah Shalom, the Lord of Peace.
No sin of ours can separate us from His love. There is nothing we could do to make Him love us more and nothing we could do to make him love us less. Never.
If we go back to Genesis 1:1 (In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.) We will find the very first mention of God’s name. Elohim which is translated strength, power, and creator. If we are feeling weak and powerless, who better to call on for help than our very own Elohim, the creator of the world? The next book over, in Exodus 3 when God is speaking to Moses through the burning bush about freeing the Israelites from slavery, he says his name is I AM WHO I AM. Meaning he is I AM, Jehovah, or Yahweh. He is The LORD over our forefathers and this will be his name forever. He is an independent God and possesses all authority in heaven and on earth!
Have you ever heard that the LORD is a jealous God? That sounds like a controversial characteristic of him doesn’t it? But in the book of Exodus and Nahum we see that he indeed is referred to a jealous and wrathful God, El Qanna. But it is an important part of his just character, for His glory and our GOOD!
Exodus 20:5 (NLT) says it best: You must not bow down to them(idols/gods) or worship them,
for I, the Lord your God,
am a jealous God who will not tolerate your affection for any other gods.
Nahum 1:2(NLT) says: The Lord is a jealous God,
filled with vengeance and rage.
He takes revenge on all who oppose him
and continues to rage against his enemies!
The LORD is due all of our praise, honor, attention, and affection. If we give that to another, He then is holy jealous for us to return to him what is due him because he is righteous and faithful to all of his promises in his Word.
Deuteronomy 4:15b says: Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourself an idol. Deut. 4:24 proclaims, For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. If, and, when we do fall and sin against the Lord, there is glorious news! Remember this, verse 29 reads, if we seek the LORD, we will find him if we look for him with all our hearts and souls. He wants us back! He wants us to call on His Name! Verse 31 promises:
For the Lord your God is a merciful and compassionate God;
He will not fail you, nor destroy you,
nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.
Merciful is defined as forgiving, tender-hearted, sympathetic, generous, and a blessing. Similarly, compassionate is defined as understanding, lenient, and kind. In other words, we can call Him God Almighty, El Shaddai! He has it all, He is self-sustaining, and provides all that we need as well, because of His great love for us! Remember to call on Him regularly!
So this post is mainly a reminder post for me to remember the goodness of Jehovah Shalom, my Elohim! Father, forgive me for my sin and my disbelief, remind me of your goodness, your loving-kindness, and your forgiveness.
I do also hope that you found a piece of wisdom that helps you out as well. In part two of this post, we will look at the names that He lovingly calls us.
