"Lighting the Fire"
Jotting – Week 2

Learn God’s Name

We’re spending several weeks on the “Learn” part of the mission responses of Ablaze! While do want to look at the mission work going on near us, in our congregations, communities, and around the world, we want to have our hearts ignited for that work, to learn to know God better. This week, we are considering God’s names, how those names affect us and our relationship with Him, and how we use those names as we witness.

How many names for God can you list? The web site, www.characterbuildingforfamilies.com/names.html, lists 606 names or descriptive phrases of God from Scripture. In the book of Genesis, we can find such names, among others, as God (or Elohyim, meaning supreme God); “Lord God” (these first two found throughout the book); “LORD, God Most High, the Possessor of heaven and earth” (14:22); almighty God (17:1); everlasting God (22:33); the LORD will provide (22:14).

In Exodus, one of God’s most powerful names is revealed: I AM WHO I AM.

When God said to Moses at the burning bush, “I AM WHO I AM," He was telling Moses by which name Moses should know Him, by what name He should be revealed to the children of Israel. Read the account in Exodus 3.

God’s name tells who He is: I AM WHO I AM. God does not say, “I am who I was” or “who I will be,” but I AM WHO I AM. God is the God of the present, of the here and now, who was in the past, who will walk with us into the future, but who is always with us.

God’s name tells who He is: God is Light. Where God is, there is no darkness. When God created the world, the first words He spoke were, “Let there be light.” God is light. God was in the world He created.

Jesus revealed Himself to be the Son of God when He said in: “I am the Light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” John 8:12

Amazingly, Jesus tells us, “You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. ... Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:14, 16
God’s name tells what He is: God is Truth. God is not capable of untruths, of telling lies. He is Truth. In this day and age when people say “Truth is relative” or “Truth is what you believe,” they miss the point. Truth is God and His Word to us.

Jesus says to us, as He said to Thomas and the other disciples: “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6). Another way of saying this might be, “I am the true way to life in the Father.”

God’s name reveals what He is: God is Love. “This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His one and only Son into the world that we might live through Him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:9-10).

Make a list of God’s names that you come across in your daily Bible readings. Contemplate God’s names. Choose a different one each day this week to think about. Perhaps your daily circumstances will lead you to choose one name over another. Write it down. Think–or record–what that name of God means to you and for you. Consider what name for God you might use as you speak to a family member, a coworker, a neighbor who doesn’t know Christ? Pray for an opportunity to help someone else know God in the way you know Him.

Reflect on the name of God on which you are meditating each time you hear someone say irreverently, “Oh, my God.” Use it as an opportunity to witness, “I’m curious. Which God do you mean?” “Is your God my God?” “Do you know my God? I like to think of my God as ... (put in the name of God you are pondering that day).”

Hold God’s name holy. Praise Him, glorify Him, lift up His name as sacred. Then say with the psalmist, “I will praise the name of God with a song, And will magnify Him with thanksgiving” (Psalm 69:30) and with Daniel, “Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, For wisdom and might are His.” (Daniel 2:20)

Pray: Begin with the name of God that means the most to you: Dear _________, You are God of my life, my source of Light, the Truth that leads me to You and heaven. Your name is holy and sacred. Help me keep it hallowed so that all may know You and Jesus Christ, whom You have sent. I praise Your name and bless it forever. Amen.