Tuesday, June 4, 2013

God is good. All the time.

All the time.  God is good.

"When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, ‘I am God Almighty; walk before me and be blameless.’” (Genesis 17:1, NIV)

The LORDJehovah gave Abram a revelation of Himself when He introduced Himself with the title, God Almighty, El Shaddai [EL-SHA-DYE]. This is a wonderfully encouraging picture of God for us today because El Shaddai reveals both the all-powerful and most-tender sides of His nature.

El in Hebrew is the shortened form of Elohim, our Creator God, and Shaddai is Hebrew for Almighty.

El Shaddai is our all-powerful God who can create something from nothing, who can bring to life that which has no breath; nothing is too difficult for Him. But to understand the full significance of God’s character as revealed in this title, it’s to helpful understand that there is a word play between shaddai and shad, which means breast—different Hebrew words that sound alike. This indicates a quality of tenderness in God Almighty, like a mother feeding a baby. El Shaddai is our God who nourishes us,
sustains us, our all-bountiful God who has an endless supply of whatever we need at the most personal
level.

For this reason, El Shaddai could be translated as our all-powerful Nourisher or Sustainer, our
all-sufficient God, or—our personal favorite (from T.W. Hunt in Disciple’s Prayer Life)—the Out-Pourer of
Blessings. He is All-Powerful and He has unlimited resources to meet our needs and bring His blessing into
our lives.

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