Episode #224 What If God Doesn’t Show Up Like His Name Says? – Names of God

Hey friends, it's Jen. And welcome to Good God Talks. We're in this series, getting to know the names of God by how he introduced them to us in scripture, and also how we get to experience them in our daily lives.

But there's a question that comes up often in conversations like this, and I've wrestled with this before and I still do wrestle with it sometimes. And the question is:

What do I do when it feels like God isn't showing up like his name says in my life?

We can look at these names of God, the God who sees me, the God who heals, the Lord who is peace, the God who provides. And we can say, yeah, I see that in the Bible.

Maybe we even see that in the lives of other people.
But there are specific ways that we want or need God to show up in that way in our lives. And he hasn't yet in the ways that we're asking him to.

We come to God and we're saying, I hear this name. I'm hearing that this is your role and your relationship and your reputation.

And so I need you to see me. I need you to do the impossible in my life. I need you to provide, I need you to heal in this way. I need you to give me peace. And oftentimes the places where we struggle with this most are when those needs are the greatest, and God hasn't answered the prayer in the way we would like Him to.

We've spent these episodes looking at people who got to experience God in this way. And, also, there are other times, and there are many other people, where God didn't supernaturally intervene like this. There were many people who were healed in scripture, and there were many who were not.

If you've been around the podcast for a little bit you know that I'm not a stranger to grief. There's been a lot of grief that I've lived through in early childhood years, in massive church hurts and wounds and abuse. There's been grief that I've navigated with my own delayed fertility and pregnancies that we lost. And even with my mom passing away there are prayers I have asked God for, and his answer didn't look like I wanted it to.

And when that happens, it can feel like he is not who he says that he is.

And I share this with you because if you're wrestling with any of those questions, I want you to know you're not alone. That you're human. you can Bring those doubts and those areas of pain to God, to ask for Him to speak, to ask for Him to move and to heal, to bring His truth and His comfort.

These needs are significant. And I don't discount them, and neither does he.

He is who he says he is. He doesn't change. And he shows up this way even when we don't see it, I would say most of the times that he is showing up in this way, we don't see it.

But sometimes when we really need to see it, doesn't look the way we would like it to. Who he is doesn't have to line up with what we think is best or what we would want or what our hearts long for.

God does load us daily with benefits. But the goodness of God is eternal. The healing that he brings, the provision that he has accomplished, the fact that he sees us, and he offers us peace that is for eternal purposes, not just the temporary ones.

Sometimes the way that God shows up to answer those prayers is in eternity. My mom is healed in heaven.
And sometimes we get to experience them here on earth. I have unexplained infertility in my medical history, and also I have two sons on earth that I get to raise.

The way that we get to experience who God is the most is in the eternal rescue, in the salvation that we have received and the gift of getting to live in daily life with him now.

And so my encouragement, especially if you're wrestling with any of these names of God is to call on the name of the Lord. He tells us, call on me, I will answer you, call to me, come to me. So come to him with all of the wrestling included and ask him to help you believe and receive and experience him as that name, because that's true of who he is.

It reminds me of the story of the Samaritan woman recorded in John four, and I'll read a little bit from the New Living Translation.

If you're not familiar with the story, the Samaritan woman goes to the well in the heat of the day likely to avoid the other women in the town. And she interacts with Jesus there and he reveals things to her that he had no earthly, human way of knowing. And so she leaves her jar and runs back to the town and tells the town, come and see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could he be the Messiah? The town comes and then Jesus actually goes back with them and stays for a few days. it says, picking up in verse 41,

“long enough for many more to hear his message and believe. Then they said to the woman, ‘Now we believe, not just because of what you told us, but because we have heard him ourselves. Now we know that he is indeed the Savior of the world.’” (John 4:41-42 NLT)

There's beauty and power in our testimonies. And also we need to hear and experience Jesus for ourselves.

Let these testimonies of his role, his relational care, and his reputation, prompt your heart, let them stir your faith, to ask him To talk with you more about that directly, to show you how he has been that in your past and how he is that in your present.

Call on his name and bring your needs before him. And here's a question that you can take into that conversation with him:

God, please help me hear and see you myself. What do you want to share with me about who you are and how you care for me?

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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