Episode #216 Part 1: Real Hope for Real People, Hope for the Impossible – Names of God

Hey friends, it's Jen, and I'm excited to spend this time together today as we're getting to know God better through his names. We're looking at different names that are given in the Bible about God. And I'm encouraging us to think about these names in three ways, relationship, role, and reputation.

Through these names, we're getting to know God more relationally by how he shows up for us. We're getting to know him more by his role, by how he uses his strength and power and acts in love for our good. And we're getting to know him by his reputation, his name kind of goes before him and helps us get to know him better.

We're spending two episodes talking about each one of these names in the series, looking at how it was revealed to the person or the people who were there in the moment that's recorded for us in the Bible. And then in part two, we're making that even more personal and talking with God about how he wants to share that name with each one of us.

And so today we're learning about God's name as El Shaddai, God Almighty.

God introduces this name to Abram when he enters into covenant with him. This is when he changes Abram's name from Abram to Abraham. And he promises a multitude of children to a barren couple, now Abraham and Sarah.

And so we want to begin by first considering what this would have meant to Abraham. Imagine if you knew Abram and Sarai in real life, a couple that had been married for a really long time and did not have children of their own, but they knew that God had given them a promise that they would have children someday. They just couldn't figure out how it's going to happen.

Now this is after their mistake with Hagar, so they've already taken matters into their own hands and messed up and God is saying, hey, no, that's not the way. It is going to come from the two of you and they just can't figure out how.

I can relate to this story, in a real personal way because my husband and I had unexplained infertility problems for years. Both of our sons are rainbow babies, which are babies after losses. And there were seasons where I was not sure if I was ever going to be able to physically bear a child. But I relate to that wanting and that waiting and that hoping.

Abram was 86 when Hagar bore him Ishmael. And we're going to pick up this story continuing in Abram's life in Genesis 17. And it tells us that Abram is now 99 years old. So that's a lot of waiting.

And as I read this part of Abram's story to you, I encourage you to ask God this question:

God, what do you want me to notice about how you identified yourself in this conversation with Abraham?

I'll read Genesis 17:1-6 in the NLT. It says,

“When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, ‘I am El-Shaddai—God Almighty. Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life. I will make a covenant with you, by which I will guarantee to give you countless descendants.’ At this, Abram fell face down on the ground. Then God said to him, ‘This is my covenant with you: I will make you the father of a multitude of nations! What’s more, I am changing your name. It will no longer be Abram. Instead, you will be called Abraham, for you will be the father of many nations. I will make you extremely fruitful. Your descendants will become many nations, and kings will be among them!’" (Genesis 17:1-6 NLT)

God interacts with Abraham, changes his name to Abraham, and gives Abraham a new name to know God by El Shaddai, God Almighty.

And he says, I am El Shaddai, and I am going to do this for you.

If I picture Abraham and Sarah as real-life friends of mine who are well past childbearing years and who don't know how this is going to happen and God Comes to them and says I am God Almighty and I am going to do this?! That prompts such excitement in me.

There's such power and excitement and intimacy that comes when we consider the real-life people who interacted with God.

When we consider how Abraham was a real-life person who needed God to show up and God did. And so here's that question that I encourage you to keep talking with God about:

God, what do you want me to notice about how you identified yourself in this conversation with Abraham?

I wonder what else God wants to show you about himself and his reputation as God Almighty.

Have a good talk.

And if you've been encouraged by this content, please share it with a friend and help them grow in their conversational relationship with God too!

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