This may seem a strange detail to include in the chronicle of the desert journey, but you'll eventually see why I chose to include it.
Right after I talked to the Lord about the whole love life situation, I launched into another matter that had been on my heart for several days.
I needed a name for God.
When I was a little girl, I attended a week of revival services at our church, and the evangelist fascinated me. He was a short man who walked with a cane and spoke in a very pointed tone. He had a deep furrowed crease between his eyebrows that never left - even when the words from his mouth seemed to be words of praise and happiness. (Truth? He petrified me, though I'm sure he was a very nice man.)
But the thing I remember most about him was he began every prayer with the phrase "Father God." I thought there must be something to that phrase, because people in the church seemed to respect his relationship with the Lord, so I tried my hand at beginning prayers with "Father God," but nothing seemed different, so I gave up.
Over the years, I've read books about the names of God, participated in Bible studies and Sunday School classes about the names of God - and that nagging desire to have a name for Him just seemed to grow deeper. And yet nothing really jumped out at me as a specific name just for me to use in conversation with Him.
More recently, I even noticed the names for the Lord being specific here in blogland. Tsofah always types G-d. Katie, over at Katie's Keepers, always writes out LORD - like you see in the Bible. As I read these blogs and as I grew increasingly frustrated with the drought that had settled over my spirit, I wanted...needed a name for Him.
So that night, I wrote in my journal, I want a name for You, God. As we have been studying prayer in Sunday School, and the names for You...I want a name that means something. Something between us that is unique. Show me.
Before I went to sleep, I read through Streams in the Desert, and I copied these words into my journal: "It is a good thing to 'rejoice in the Lord'...delight in it and God will reward your faith...His Holy Spirit will sustain you in your bold advance and fill your heart with gladness and praise."
Just as I'd never had my own "name" for God, I was also not a prolific praiser...and I knew I needed to work on that in my life. The words in Streams reminded me of a song (here's a shocker for you - it's a Gaither song!) I learned back in college. So I wrote in my journal, God, hear my song. Let it be incense rising to Your Throne. I don't think I understood - in fact, I know I didn't understand that the desire to have a name for the Lord was, in and of itself, incense rising to His Throne. But it was.
And God indeed went to work establishing a name for Himself in my life.
5 comments:
I thought of you today in church. The sermon was on the Luke story of the woman who washed Jesus' feet with her tears and hair and poured the perfume on his feet. They had special music right before the sermon: "Broken and Spilled Out." It made me cry, and I knew you'd know that song.
Oh....I do love that song and haven't heard it in ages. Steve has such a great anthem voice...one of his best songs for sure. :)
I once had someone challenge me on the way I spell "G-d". I told him why (will explain on Vine Lines at a future date), which seemed to make him all the more angry. He then said "How do you pronouce that word?"
I answered him. He gave up. LOL.
My 2nd favorite name for G-d?
"Everything". He is Everything.
By the way "Chewie" your title is interesting because, one of the "Names for G-d" in Hebrew is HaShem, which means, "the Name".
Tsofah -
I am looking forward to your post about G-d. Hope it was okay that I added you to my "it intrigued me" list. :) I do love the "Everything" one as well. Makes me think of the Avalon song. I just listened to that song the other night.
And I did NOT know that about HaShem. Musta missed that chapter in the name book. :(
Post a Comment