One of my all-time favorite movies is "The King and I," and one of my favorite songs from that movie is called, "Getting To Know You." "Getting to know you, getting to know all about you. Getting to like you. Getting to hope you like me..." Several months ago, my older daughter asked me if we could start doing a family devotional even if Daddy wouldn't join us. This was before he moved out, but things were pretty tense and it was obvious to all of us that he wouldn't be at home much longer. And so I set about figuring out what we should study in our devotional time. And God led me to several studies to help us get to know Him better. If you are going to be walking with God through a difficult valley, it helps if you really know who it is you are walking with.
Our first study was on the Ten Commandments. It was a study we already had available courtesy of my daughter's Sunday school class, and I figured that getting to know God meant getting to know what He expected of us and why. I also felt it was very important for all of us to commit to obedience at a time when we might be easily tempted to stray. This was a very good study and when we were finished, we moved on to the characteristics of God. We studied love, justice, holiness, and mercy and all of these gave us a little more insight into who God is. Now we have moved on to a study of God's names. Each of His names gives us another glimpse into who He really is and helps us to trust Him more. We now know Him as Elohim (God the Creator), El Elyon (God Most High), El Roi (the God who sees), El Shaddai (God Almighty), Adonai (Lord and Master), Jehovah Jireh (God who provides). These names have shown us that He is over everything, sovereign and all-sufficient. We know that He will provide for us.
Last night we started talking about a new name of God - Jehovah Rapha - the God who heals. We have seen through our study of the name El Roi that he sees our pain, and now we see that He is the God that heals our pain. Our study led us to Exodus 15 where we read the story of how God led the people of Israel to the bitter waters of Marah and then used Moses to turn the bitter waters to sweet waters. We don't know why God would lead us to these bitter waters, but we know that He is God Most High. And it is hard to see how these bitter waters could ever be made sweet, but we know that He is the God who provides and the God who heals. It is wonderful to know God by His names!
"The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The righteous runs into it and is safe." Proverbs 18:10
No comments:
Post a Comment