What do you call God?
What words did Jesus use to refer to God? Stop and think a minute. Can you recall? I word-searched through the Gospels and this is what I found: God, the Lord, the father, my father, your father.
When you need him, what do you call God?
My friend recently gave me a lovely prayer shawl, complete with blue stripes and tassels. When I tried it on I noticed the word Abba was woven into the cloth over and over. Abba is Hebrew for father.
In my neighborhood we have a family that moved here from Israel. One afternoon Annie, their little girl, climbed an exercise structure and made her way out onto a horizontal bar. She hung there but soon realized how high up she was.
Frightened she yelled“Abba! Abba! Abba!” I watched her father sprint across the playground and grab Annie.
“Abba, Abba,” I cry when I am afraid or stuck.
My little neighbor knew her father would come. How do we know our Father will come?
In my previous blog I introduced the Hebrew name for God, Yahweh. When Moses first met God he asked God what his name was, and God told Moses, “I AM WHO I AM. Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.”
Yahweh means the existent one. When you’re reading your English translation of the Old Testament and come to LORD, lord printed in all capital letters, you know the name Yahweh is there in Hebrew.
In ancient cultures a name told you something about that person. God’s Hebrew name tells us he is the one who existed before all other things.
But we need to know more, so Moses, later on, asked God to show him who he was so we could know him.
And this was God’s answer to Moses, and to us:
The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”
Will God care when you are afraid and call him? Yes! He is merciful.
Will God take care of you, as Annie’s father did? Yes! He is gracious.
Will God be patient with you? Yes! He is slow to get angry.
Will God pay attention to you? Yes! His love for you is bigger than you imagine.
Will God be there when you need Him. Yes! He is always faithful.
Jesus taught his disciples to pray “our Father,” inviting us into relationship with God.
The invitation is clear. God says, “Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you.”
What are you waiting for?
Scripture references: Exodus 3:1, 34:6, Psalms 50:15
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