El Elyon

The second name of God I read about was El Elyon, the Most High. He is the sovereign ruler of all the universe. There is nothing that can happen to us without God's knowledge or permission.

A good example in the Bible of El Elyon is in Job. Satan could not do anything to Job without God's permission. First God gave him permission to do anything he wanted, but not touch Job's body. Satan thought Job would curse God we he took away all of his wealth and children. But he didn't. So then Satan said it was because he didn't do anything to Job's "person." So God told him he could do whatever he wanted to Job, but not to kill him. So Satan put painful boils all over Job's body from head to toe just knowing that Job would curse God. But he didn't. Instead Job said "Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?"

One might wonder why God would allow Satan to harm one of His children. I don't pretend to know the mind of God, but I do know that we can bring Him glory through our trials in the way we respond to them.

My prayer is that in whatever trials I face in the days, weeks, months and years ahead, that I bring glory to my Lord and Savior in my thoughts, words, and actions.

Elohim

A couple of days ago I posted about Elohim -- Creator God. Now I want to talk about how I came to be studying the names of God.

At the beginning of the year I started reading through the Bible. When I would come across different names for God, I kind of felt like the Holy Spirit was prompting me to learn about these names and who God is. I can remember thinking "that's a good idea, I should do that sometime." Then I'd keep on reading.

On Monday of this week, I met with a couple of ladies who are going to be speakers at our single mom's retreat next month. One of the ladies started talking about the names of God with such an intensity and intimacy that I was drawn in. She thought it would be a good idea to bring that into our retreat. I thought "aha...that's why God wanted me to learn the names of God." It could be, but yesterday afternoon I had a different idea.

After I found out about Neal's impending surgery, the Lord brought to mind the name I'd studied only the day before -- Elohim -- mighty God, Creator! And it struck me...God created Neal. God created Neal's heart. Elohim created Neal's heart! We think of Neal's heart as having a "defect," but God didn't make him and say "Oops...messed up on that one." No. For one reason or another, he allowed Neal's heart to have a "defect." God knew from the beginning of time that Neal would have to go through this surgery at this time. He makes no mistakes.

Now we just have to trust Elohim. Trust that He is in control. After all, if He can create the entire universe, I'm sure if He so chooses, he can fix a broken heart!

As Neal told the kids yesterday, "the doctors have been working on this procedure for many years now so that they'd have it down just right for me." ;o)

The Creator

In my previous post I mentioned I was going to start reading "LORD, I Want to Know You" by Kay Arthur. Well, I've started it and it's really good. I thought I would start briefly blogging about the Names of God as I find out about them. So, the first name I learned is Elohim. This name basically tells us who God is...he is our Creator. El means "mighty" or "strong."

So when we think of the God who created the heavens and the earth and who created you and me...we are thinking of Elohim -- The Creator.