Studying the Names of God

Let me just reiterate this for anyone who has never done a study on the names of God: If you want to really know who God is, what He's all about, why He does what He does, then study His names!

My first look into the names of God was many years ago when a good friend, former youth pastor, and Campus Crusade for Christ associate, Dick Purnell, wrote a devotional called "Knowing God By His Names: A 31 Day Experiment". That was a fabulous introduction to someone who didn't even realize that God had "names"!

Recently, my good friend EEEEMommy, shared with me that she was doing the children's "Discover for Yourself: God, What's Your Name?" book by Kay Arthur, with her kids. Being in the midst of total crisis, while listening to my children ask some tough questions about God and why bad things are allowed to happen to those that trust Him, I latched onto the idea as from the Lord, and ordered the book.

Personally, I don't care for a lot of the fluff in this series of books, but the content is superb! So with that in mind, I skipped the fluff and got to the business. Let me assure you! All of my children's questions were answered. All my questions were answered. Before, we knew God was trustworthy; that His promises are true and His grace is sufficient, but now we had a much better understanding of why things are the way they are. Now we have a firmer knowledge of who God is.

I don't think you need to be in the midst of suffering to need to know who He is. Maybe if everyone knew this, there'd be less selfish, sinful choices being made in this world. Maybe it is easier to draw near to a God we know, than a God that we only imagine. I challenge you to consider this study! It's worth every minute.

There are 16 names in the book, plus I added a couple of others that were meaningful, such as Emmanuel: God is with us. It's tempting to list them all out for you, and I did list many of them in my previous post, but I want you to discover them for yourself!

There are some pretty neat resources available for this study. Here's a link that provides artwork associated with the names of God. Here's another great site if you don't wish to purchase a book.