My mother chose to name me after herself, and for YEARS I hated the being named after her. I know from first-hand experience the trauma of being a namesake. There's ALWAYS the unspoken rule that that you are like the other person and in some way expected to fit their shoes. Not so! Early in life I strived to carve out my own identity that was nothing remotely like my mother. People who know me from childhood called me “Little Lillian” and my mother “Big Lillian” to differentiate which one of us they were speaking to. As the years have passed and made us similar in more ways than one, she goes by the affectionate “Ms.Lill” and “Lily" or "Lilyen" for me. When I think about a person’s name, I always think, “They look a so and so. Their name FITS them perfectly. I always wanted to be named Michelle because it seemed SO much better than what was on my birth certificate. To me Lillian was an old name; after all it was my mother’s name. Over the years the name has become classy, timeless, and elegant to me-everything my mother is. I'm always excited when I meet someone else with my name and the first think I usually say is, "That's my mother's name!" I suspect 33 years ago she knew something about names that and wanted to pass the mantle onto her precious baby girl.
While I am excited about the name my mother gave me, I am even MORE excited about the names of God. Just think about what the ENTIRE universe will one day have to do at the name of Jesus! These magnificent names display His supremacy, power, and love for each of us. When we know the names of God and the characteristics, we can put all of our hope and trust in Him. I will be doing a series of blogs on the Names of God. Many of us are more familiar with the more common names such as Jehovah Jireh God our Provider, or Jehovah Nissi The Lord our Banner. What about Jehovah Chereb The Lord the Sword? Has God not proven Himself to be faithful and just to all of us? We each have a testimony of how He has proven Himself over and over as El Emmunah "The Faithful God". I encourage you take time to meditate and reflect on His names and treasure them close to your heart; ALWAYS! If you don't know, I pray you find Him to be everything you need! Psalm 9:10 says, And those who know Your name will put their trust in You, For You, O LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You.
El Hannun- The Gracious God
Grace as we know it is God's unmerited favor. Think about it, in all of our waywardness-we actually deserve nothing. But because of his great love for us, God, who is RICH in mercy made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. What if God were one of us? Would you be so kind? Compassionate? Forgiving? Loving? Merciful? Gracious? What if God was just like you? Or me? YIKES!!! I am SO glad He is not! Paul had something that troubled him so bad, he went to the Lord three times and the Lord told Him, "My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me." Now Paul wrote this letter to the church at Corinth YEARS ago, but notice God did not say my grace WAS sufficient. He said it IS sufficient. That means right now! Whatever were going through, going into, or coming out of~ the grace of God is more than enough to see us through. His grace keeps us humble and pliable so He can work in us as He does the perfect job of working His goodness on our behalf.
One of my all-time favorite hymns is "Tis So Sweet". In the chorus the writer penned the lyrics Oh for grace to trust you more. At times when life’s billows threaten to drown me, I find myself humming those words over and over to calm my distressed spirit. I don't know about you, but I need the grace of God to trust Him in all aspects of my life. The grace of God will give us strength to go through the storms of life with our heads held high because our trust and faith is built on Christ the solid rock. God has proven himself to be not only gracious, but rich in mercy EVEN when we don't deserve it. He can't help it! It's part of who He is! Isaiah 30:18 says the Lord LONGS to be gracious to you...and He will be exalted that He may have mercy on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; blessed are those that wait for Him. I strongly believe that God wants to lavish each and every one of His with his goodness, mercy, love, justice, blessings, righteousness, and the list keeps going and going.
He has shown Himself as a gracious God and by being kind, merciful, not becoming angry too quickly, having great love and faithfulness, and forgiving our sins. Praise God that as His child you can go BOLDY to the throne of grace and get mercy when you need it. He is a gracious God and wants to be gracious to you.
Exodus 34:6-7
Psalm 9:10
Ephesians 2:4
Hebrews 4:6
2 Corinthians 12:9
Philippians 2:10
