Prior to January 1st, I started saturating myself with everything I could find about the oldest name of God, El Elyon. Every night since, I’ve ended my day with this prayer, ‘Help me connect with You through Your name in a way that changes our relationship forever.’
This morning, I woke up thinking about my grandmother. My face was wet with tears as I remembered how she suffered a desperate need for connection and went to surprising lengths to find it.
She (Gerda Johannson) emigrated from Sweden at age 16. We never knew the reason. She went through immigration on Ellis Island but what happened when she set her feet on the streets of New York is unknown. Eventually, she married a railroad man who was mean, at times violent, and mentally unstable with untreated schizophrenia. He isolated my grandmother to a rural farm with no neighbors in sight. She lived her days in fear of him as she bore and raised seven children. Many nights when he was ranting and irrational, she woke up her children and, together, they ran to the barn to spend the night in hiding.
When she could not sit on her pain any longer, she admitted visiting a neighboring pasture to talk to the cows. As she unburdened her soul, dark brown eyes would look back at her and she felt they connected with her anguish.
After thinking about my grandmother’s story, it clicked. The reason to study God’s names is not to know more about Him. This isn’t an intellectual pursuit. It’s a journey of the heart. Each name is a new way to connect with Him. For this, we were created. Let’s begin.
El Elyon means ‘the most high God.’ He is higher and more powerful than any political figure in our headlines and stronger than any dark force that seeks to intimidate us. His authority trumps the leaders of every nation under the sun and extends to the heavens as well as the places in the deep. He is most High God over all spirit beings and human beings. No one is His equal.
NASA sent a spacecraft to Saturn to take pictures, hundreds of thousands of them. It took seven years for it to get there, and no one knew if the spacecraft could withstand the 1400+ degree temperatures in Saturn’s orbital path. El Elyon created Saturn, it’s many moons, and everything beyond our solar system. This most High God created us, too. He called us by name and then said, “You are mine.”
My grandmother found God later in her life. The Lutheran faith of her childhood came full circle and she connected, finally, with Jesus. Her old Swedish Bible lay on the radiator near the kitchen table. Her eventual death was beautiful. My mother was with her as she exclaimed over the world she was seeing for the first time.
Today, we can rest in El Elyon. He drew us to Him with cords of love. We are connected, attached. Nothing can wrench us out of His hands.
El Elyon, make Your name so personal that I am changed from this day on. Amen
A few quotes to carry with us through the weekend. Pray with me that God opens our hearts to receieve the full measure of His revelation.
Jeremiah: There is none like you, O LORD; you are great, and your name is great in might.
Tim Keller: “To hallow God’s name is not merely to live righteous lives but to have a heart of grateful joy toward God-and even more, a wondrous sense of awe at the majesty and holiness of who He is.”
Sam Storms: God’s name is qualified by the adjective “holy” in the Old Testament more often than all other qualities or attributes combined.
Charles Spurgeon: Knowledge is best when it exercises itself upon the Name of God.
Tony Evans: Sometimes God will allow you to experience larger problems in life because He wants to unveil a larger portion of Himself to you. People who want to give up on God simply because life’s scenarios don’t make sense could very well be walking away from a new manifestation of God and His name in their lives.”
While spending the night on the way to Bethlehem, I wonder if Mary thought of her home and her comfortable bed. The ground wasn’t very forgiving to her aching body. Joseph probably didn’t sleep much either, trying to do what he could to soften the place where Mary lay. We can imagine his kindness.
Joseph had to wonder what would happen when they arrived in Bethlehem. He could tell that the baby’s birth was near. He probably felt alone and weighed down with responsibility for their safety. For strength, perhaps he took a deep breath, reviewed the stories of his ancestral fathers, and trusted God.
Their safety was not dependent upon his own ingenuity. God was the Father, just out of sight, ensuring the safe arrival of the Promise. The redemptive plans of God, from before time, would break open upon the Earth and nothing would tamper with divine sovereignty.
My life has also been planned from before the creation of the world. God said so. My calling is as secure in God’s hands as the calling of Joseph and Mary. I can often feel the weight of responsibility, believing that I have more to do with determining my tomorrows than God does. I fear that my own ingenuity will make or break my future. Not so. The presence of God hovers near. His breath warms my way. I cannot miss the way if I am prayerful, if I am listening, because my Bethlehem is always within reach. My roadway has been paved ahead of time by the index finger of God.
For “you were like sheep going astray,” but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls. I Peter 2:25
When an ancient king planned to journey through a desert landscape, the way was prepared beforehand by his advance team. The road was inspected, repaired where needed, and all that would obstruct his journey was addressed.
Jesus was our advance team. He came to prepare the way for us to walk the path to His kingdom. The infant Shepherd who napped in the manger was also the One who made crooked paths straight.
And not only is He the little Shepherd but He is also the little Overseer of our souls.
That means He is the caretaker of our inside world. He exposes sin and inspires repentance. He encourages us to examine each crooked place in our hearts so things can be made straight. He saves us from painful detours. He cheers us on when we limp. He picks us up when we’re lame. He helps us when we’re emotionally and spiritually feeble.
We have a deep desire to be known by One who loves us and has earned our trust. Because we were wired for this divine connection, our souls strain to be under the care of One who sees it all, the good and the bad. We want to belong to the One who can craft an environment where we will thrive. But there is a caveat ~ we must first give up our lives to Him in surrender.
You are the perfect Shepherd and perfect Overseer. I’m going to let you define what is best for me without limiting Your influence. Amen
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: ‘Cursed is everyone who is hung on a pole. … When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing. Galatians 3:13
A wee little baby was born with a purpose that defied understanding. He wasn’t born to be a teacher, or to tell stories about God, or to perform miracles, or to be king of Israel. He was born to reverse the curse that was pronounced in the Garden of Eden.
The curse came upon Adam and Eve when they failed to believe God about the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Turning their back on belief, and then sealing it with an act of disobedience, ushered in immense consequences for them and every one of their descendants. Is it any wonder that Jesus would grow up to say, “Whoever believes in me, though He dies, yet shall He live.”
The sin of unbelief was committed in a garden. Thirty-three years after little Jesus was born, He would enter another garden to deal with the weight of our curse and to give up His life to reverse it. Unbelief brought the curse. Belief in Jesus lifted it.
Every one of us who has embraced this little Savior and believed in Him is no longer cursed ~ but blessed. The theme of our life is not ‘paradise lost’ but ‘paradise restored.’ Barren landscapes, once brown and decayed by sin, are now lush and green. Futility and hopelessness were instantly banished with His words, “It is finished.”
I still believe and choose to act on it. Thank you, baby Jesus. Amen
And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them. Luke 2:9
The shepherds didn’t ask to see the glory of God. They didn’t try to earn it the privilege either. The unmerited favor of God intersected their personal history and brought an experience the likes of which they would never forget. Nothing in the future would eclipse the memory of that night when the heavens opened up and the veil that limited their spiritual eyesight was temporarily lifted.
Are such defining moments possible today for the one who loves God? Yes. There are moments that become mountaintops; encounters that become a Bethel. Don’t settle for monotony. Don’t live on yesterday’s manna. Seek, listen, pursue God relentlessly and the glory of the Lord will be near to you at an unsuspecting time. An ordinary day will be turned upside down as the eternal penetrates the temporal. God’s glory will sofill your field of vision that earth’s trinkets will no longer dazzle your eyes.
Those around you may not see the holy moments but you will. You’ll take your shoes off even as you remember it. In the afterglow, you will live dazed and will tremble in the distraction of the memory. Such is the ecstasy of the one who has seen God pass by.
I want to commune with you in a place that doesn’t need words. Amen
Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an Apostle, set apart for the Gospel of God, which he promised before hand through the prophets in the holy scriptures. Romans 1:2
Nearly every time Paul gave a defense for the Gospel, he didn’t start with the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem. Since most of his accusers were Jewish leaders, he was intent on showing them that Jesus was connected to their scriptures, the fulfillment of their law. The Torah, which they embraced and knew front to back, had predicted his coming. God was not only the Alpha and Omega, but the God of the in-between. Nothing was random, nothing was haphazard, but each event in history a meticulously conceived plan according to the wisdom of a Sovereign God.
Why was this important to the Jews? Because it’s hard for any of us to completely leave everything familiar and embark on something new. And it wasn’t necessary where the Jews were concerned. They had in their hands (the Torah and the writings of the prophets) the complete revelation of Jesus Christ. To believe on Him was to complete their faith, to be as Abraham looking ahead for the Lamb of God and finding Him in Jesus.
God is the consummate storyteller. The revelation of Jesus in Bethlehem was connected to the plot line in Eden when Adam and Eve sinned. Everything in between followed the story line.
In God’s plot line, there is no such thing as ‘wasted’. Not even our mistakes. Though we know the end of the story revealed in Scripture, the redemptive twists and turns take us by surprise. May I not be like the Jews who failed to recognize Jesus when He stood in front of them. As He orders the events of my day, I ask for the eyesight to see His fingerprints.
After all these years, I am beginning to love my storyline. It is interwoven with Yours, with the cross. Amen
Let’s go back 2,000 years. Together, we are standing in front of an opening to a stable. We look inside and see a young man and woman holding a newborn infant in their arms. Their mood is hushed. The moment is holy – though nearly everyone in Bethlehem fails to notice. We enter, are warmly welcomed, and ask what is so common when visiting friends who have had a new baby. “May I hold him?”
I have held many newborns, but the experience didn’t hold a candle to the sacredness of holding my own two children in my arms. When it’s your baby, how different is it?
If you and I pause to enter the Christmas story, we’re invited to internalize that He’s not just Joseph and Mary’s baby. He’s our baby. “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.” Holding him is very personal for us. We know the rest of the story and understand that Jesus was the little lamb of God. He’s been prophesied throughout the Old Testament all the way back to the book of Genesis. Mankind, ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, has desperately sought a way to get rid of our guilt. Our fallen nature eats away at our psyche until we feel like a shell of a person. We are agitated and tormented until our sins can be forgiven by God’s Lamb.
The most challenging things in life are often bittersweet. The pain is there, but so is the presence of Jesus. Against the backdrop of tragedy, beauty arises out of the ashes. This was true even in the stable. The manger and the cross were in each other’s shadow, and Mary pondered the enormity of the implications.
Baby Jesus. My little Lamb of God. Your little Lamb of God. As we caress Him and sing Him lullabies, we’re rocking Holiness.
My Lamb. You are no longer vulnerable but sitting on a throne. Hallelujah.
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And those who know Your Name will put their trust in You. For You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You. Psalm 9:10
When it’s time to name our child, we often gravitate to a name of someone we admire. We hope that our child will grow up to emulate that person’s character. We will tell our child why we chose their name, regaling them with many stories about their namesake, hoping to give them connection. We hope their respect will grow along with a desire to emulate the character traits of the one for whom they were named.
No one named God. He named Himself. There was no human name-giver with an axe to grind to pollute our perceptions of God. So easy would it be for someone to malign a perfect God with his limited understanding and Satan’s insidious accusations.
But God removed the obstacles of being misperceived by revealing His own names. Not just one, but many of them. Each reflects His personality and profile. By studying them, our view of God will enlarge. We’ll come face to face with His character and our trust will expand.
It is not often that we can recommend a person without reservation. Usually, there are qualifications. “Trust Sarah to do a good job for you. She’s good at ‘this’ but not always good at ‘that’.” God has no limits! Trust and confidence will grow with each name we explore. At the end of our life, I believe we will lament that we didn’t have more faith. We’ll realize that our risks were measured because of unfounded fear, not because of God’s limitations.
Are you with me for what’s ahead? Our confidence will grow exponentially. Our prayers will have a new boldness. Our risks will be minimized. Our obstacles will shrink into their proper perspective. Our love will grow and worship will be instinctive and generous. What better goals for the birth of a New Year!
There is none like you, O LORD; you are great, and your name is great in might. Jeremiah 10:6
Names for God before the birth of Jesus pointed to an all-knowing and all-powerful God. He was called the God Who Sees, The God Who Is My Banner, The God Who Hears, and others. These were enough to give His people comfort and strength.
With the birth of Jesus, however, came a new kind of understanding. Knowledge of God increased with the new names His Son was given. Immediately after Jesus’ birth, the shepherds were told He was Savior and Emmanuel. As He grew, Jesus revealed Himself as the Bread of Life, the Shepherd, the Son of God, the Vine, the Lamb of God, the Lord of Glory, the Last Adam, and the Precious Cornerstone. Each one gave believers new glimpses into the complex and unfathomable depths of God. They experienced Him through His names because there was a new dynamic in their relationship. Intimacy.
In 2025, we will explore the names of God. One name for every week. We will learn. We will worship. We will stretch our faith to believe the One with such powerful names. And, we will embrace the promises. And at the end of 2025, we will see how we have grown and how many things in our lives have shifted because we climbed to higher ground.
And lastly, this devotional has always been interactive. I’ll share stories along the way and I invite you to do the same. Some, I may ask to share, with your permission, because we gain new strength as we deepen our connection to one another.
I close with a quote from Tim Keller: “To hallow God’s name is not merely to live righteous lives but to have a heart of grateful joy toward God-and even more, a wondrous sense of awe at the majesty and holiness of who He is.”
While spending the night on the way to Bethlehem, I wonder if Mary thought of her home and her comfortable bed. The ground wasn’t very forgiving to her aching body. Joseph probably didn’t sleep much either, trying to do what he could to soften the place where Mary lay. We can imagine his kindness.
Joseph had to wonder what would happen when they arrived in Bethlehem. He could tell that the baby’s birth was near. He probably felt alone and weighed down with responsibility for their safety. For strength, perhaps he took a deep breath, reviewed the stories of his ancestral fathers, and trusted God.
Their safety was not dependent upon his own ingenuity. God was the Father, just out of sight, ensuring the safe arrival of the Promise. The redemptive plans of God, from before time, would break open upon the Earth and nothing would tamper with divine sovereignty.
My life has also been planned from before the creation of the world. God said so. My calling is as secure in God’s hands as the calling of Joseph and Mary. I can often feel the weight of responsibility, believing that I have more to do with determining my tomorrows than God does. I fear that my own ingenuity will make or break my future. Not so. The presence of God hovers near. His breath warms my way. I cannot miss the way if I am prayerful, if I am listening, because my Bethlehem is always within reach. My roadway has been paved ahead of time by the index finger of God.
And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them. Luke 2:9
The shepherds didn’t ask to see the glory of God. They didn’t try to earn it the privilege either. The unmerited favor of God intersected their personal history and brought an experience the likes of which they would never forget. Nothing in the future would eclipse the memory of that night when the heavens opened up and the veil that limited their spiritual eyesight was temporarily lifted.
Are such defining moments possible today for the one who loves God? Yes. There are moments that become mountaintops; encounters that become a Bethel. Don’t settle for monotony. Don’t live on yesterday’s manna. Seek, listen, pursue God relentlessly and the glory of the Lord will be near to you at an unsuspecting time. An ordinary day will be turned upside down as the eternal penetrates the temporal. God’s glory will sofill your field of vision that earth’s trinkets will no longer dazzle your eyes.
Those around you may not see the holy moments but you will. You’ll take your shoes off even as you remember it. In the afterglow, you will live dazed and will tremble in the distraction of the memory. Such is the ecstasy of the one who has seen God pass by.
I want to commune with you in a place that doesn’t need words. Amen
Let’s go back 2,000 years. Together, we are standing in front of an opening to a stable. We look inside and see a young man and woman holding a newborn infant in their arms. Their mood is hushed. The moment is holy – though nearly everyone in Bethlehem fails to notice. We enter, are warmly welcomed, and ask what is so common when visiting friends who have had a new baby. “May I hold him?”
I have held many newborns, but the experience didn’t hold a candle to the sacredness of holding my own two children in my arms. When it’s your baby, how different is it?
If you and I pause to enter the Christmas story, we’re invited to internalize that He’s not just Joseph and Mary’s baby. He’s our baby. “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.” Holding him is very personal for us. We know the rest of the story and understand that Jesus was the little lamb of God. He’s been prophesied throughout the Old Testament all the way back to the book of Genesis. Mankind, ever since the fall of Adam and Eve, has desperately sought a way to get rid of our guilt. Our fallen nature eats away at our psyche until we feel like a shell of a person. We are agitated and tormented until our sins can be forgiven by God’s Lamb.
The most challenging things in life are often bittersweet. The pain is there, but so is the presence of Jesus. Against the backdrop of tragedy, beauty arises out of the ashes. This was true even in the stable. The manger and the cross were in each other’s shadow, and Mary pondered the enormity of the implications.
Baby Jesus. My little Lamb of God. Your little Lamb of God. As we caress Him and sing Him lullabies, we’re rocking Holiness.
My Lamb. You are no longer vulnerable but sitting on a throne. Hallelujah.
When the shepherds had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child. Luke 2:17
What a person experiences long after a spiritual mountaintop is often withheld from a storyline. After the shepherds saw the heavens open, and after they found Jesus, and after they witnessed what they saw, what happened next? Did they continue to believe? Did they keep track of Jesus until his parents took him to Egypt? We’re not told.
But we know the nature of mountaintops and valleys. We know that not all the shepherds would have gone on to worship God with their lives. Holy moments dim with time. Daily living consumes. Holy moments are rare. Holy men who go on to finish well are even rarer.
My own storyline has been dotted with more God moments than I deserved, and yet, they didn’t always carry me through the dark times. There were moments I still doubted and battled hopelessness. It wasn’t that I didn’t remember the mountaintops. I did. But I couldn’t connect with them like I did just after they happened.
We’ll never know how many shepherds were on the hillside. We’ll never know if all of them left to go to Bethlehem. We’ll never know if they were all equally impacted by the baby in the manger. And we’ll never know how many went on to live changed lives from that time forward. But some did. God picks who will be privileged to witness the supernatural. For some of them, it will be the defining moment that forever changes the direction of their lives.
Take me back to the moments I need to review to be strengthened and re-purposed. Amen
Now, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, wise men came from the east to Jerusalem, saying, “Where is He who was born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the east and have come to worship Him.” Matthew 2:1-2
Scholars disagree on the length of the wise men’s journey to Bethlehem. The shortest calculation is forty days. The longest, and the one most everyone agrees upon, is approximately two years. Whether a 40-day journey or a 2-year voyage, it took considerable planning.
Had they always been looking for the star that appeared in the night sky? How did they know its significance? How could they be sure it wasn’t something of lesser significance? But they knew. And as they traveled, they would have re-calibrated continually to ensure they were still on track. Eyes fixed, they were led safely to their destination.
Symbolically, each of us embarks on a similar journey. We see the glory of God revealed, not in the skies, but in the face of Christ. That event means more than what we can possibly convey in a dinner conversation. It holds such significance that we are willing to stop everything, count the cost, and embark on a journey that will take a lifetime. Ultimately, we don’t arrive in Bethlehem to see a baby but in heaven to see a risen, glorified Jesus. Along the way, we keep our eyes fixed. We re-calibrate. If our gaze remains on Jesus, the north star, we have a direct path home.
Jesus understands the sojourn. He made it Himself. Eyes fixed on His Father, He was led safely to glory.
Jesus, I’m looking at the horizon and not at my feet. Amen
And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them. Luke 2:9
The shepherds didn’t ask to see the glory of God. They hadn’t done anything to earn the privilege. They certainly didn’t expect it. Yet, God’s favor punctuated their evening and brought an experience they would never forget. Nothing in their lifetimes would eclipse the night on the hillside when heaven opened. Do such miraculous moments still happen today? Sometimes.
A pastor we knew well suffered an aortic rupture…. something you don’t usually come back from. While clinically dead on the table, he witnessed a battlefield. He saw forces of darkness and God’s angelic forces engaged in a confrontation. When God brought the pastor back from death, he told everyone….. “If you could see what I saw, how outnumbered the enemy was, and how majestic and mighty the angelic warriors were, you would never be afraid of anything ever again!” I think of his testimony every time I battle fear.
I know that most of us will not have a near-death encounter and come back to speak of it. But we can still witness the glory of God. Sometimes there are angelic visitations. I’ve had one of them that I know of. On other occasions, Jesus will appear to someone in the night. He bears witness of Himself and brings the most unsuspecting convert to the kingdom. It’s happening all over the Middle East.
And what about the times when the heavens open and God’s Spirit brings illumination about a scripture we’ve never understood before! It is cataclysmic to our spirits, is it not? It can instantly change our paradigms, banish our fears, and shine a light on a new path we are to take. These events are ‘Bethel Moments’ that define life is profound ways.
It is easy to separate the times of scripture from the times in which we live. Sadly, our skepticism can obscure the reality of God’s presence and power. God wants to be experienced, is to be experienced, and the supernatural is to punctuate my life with poignant moments.
My trust in You does not depend on the miraculous, but every miraculous encounter with You changes me forever. Thank you for every one! Amen
Daughters of promise 