The Names of God and Other Stuff

Kay took a break this week and reviewed what we have learned up to this point and the timing was perfect for me because I'm feeling a bit under the weather and writing a post takes a lot out of me sometimes. ☺ Next week we will look at Jehovah-Nissi.

Today is a dear bloggy friend's birthday. Please stop by her place and wish her a ♫Happy Birthday♪.

Last week I connected with someone who was my best friend in Jr High. Our friendship had ended on a bad note and I have always wanted to apologize to her but was never able to connect with her. Over the years I have sometimes Googled her name or searched for her on Facebook but nothing. Her name is not too unique even though she is wonderfully unique. So last week I decided to check Facebook again and prayed that God would let me find her so I could apologize. I found her almost immediately.

I sent her a message with my apology and we have been messaging our life stories back and forth since then. The first thing she told me was that she had started radiation treatment for breast cancer that very day. We seem to have reconnected at a level of openness that we had way back then, as we are pretty open books with each other right now. I hope it continues, she is one of the very few people from my past that I have wanted to reconnect with. She is not a Christian and I have been praying to Jehovah-Rapha for her physical healing as well as her spiritual healing. Very quickly in the course of our conversations God provided an opportunity for me to share my worst sins and how and why I fell in love with Christ and gave my life to Him.

I am sure that God arranged for us to connect now and that He is working in this to speak to her. Would you please pray with me for her healing and that she would hear God speaking to her heart? Also that God would continue to guide the conversation. I won't give her name but initials are GR. ...Thanks!

I promised a post looking at the Scriptures as compared to Peterson's book The Message and will follow through with that soon. It's been busy and I really need the income. I would really appreciate your prayers for my finances and direction too if you wouldn't mind.

Enjoy your week! ☺





"A girl needs to be so lost in God, that the guy is going to have to seek HIM to find her!" ...Maya Angelou

Teaching Them How To Pray

Have you ever sat down to a meal with someone who asked their child to lead in giving thanks and the prayer was spoken so fast that you didn't even hear it? Did you ever do that when you were a child? Did you have a specific prayer that you said at every meal or when you went to bed? I did a Google search on children's prayers and was surprised at how many little poem type prayers for children there were. Here are a few examples you may be familiar with.

Thank you for the world so sweet,
Thank you for the food we eat,
Thank you for the birds that sing,
Thank you God for everything.

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God is great,
God is good.
And we thank Him
For our food. Amen.

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Lord, Bless this bunch, while we munch our lunch. Amen.

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Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
If I should die before I wake
I pray the Lord my soul to take
God bless our family and our friends.

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(And the politically correct version.)

Now I lay me down to sleep,
I pray the Lord my soul to keep
May angels watch me
through the night and
wake me with the morning light.

While these are cute, amusing, and poetic little prayers, they miss the mark of what prayer actually is. Prayer is talking with God. It is relational not religious. When we teach our children to pray a memorized prayer that was written by someone else, it becomes a set of words that can be recited at the speed of light without a thought. It's important to teach even the littlest child to talk to God from their own heart.

As adults we should also participate in the prayer and not always let the child take the lead. We are the ones who need to model prayer to our children and grand children. Jesus modeled prayer for us in Matthew 6.

"This, then, is how you should pray: " 'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one."  Matthew 6:9-13

In the same way, we need to model prayer with elements of praise and adoration for God, prayer for God's Kingdom and His will to reign on earth, requests for our provision, forgiveness for our sins and for those who have wronged us, for protection against temptation and against Satan. Not that all of these elements need to be included in every prayer but that they all are frequently modeled in our prayer life. In doing this we will teach our children how to develop relational prayer with God, and as we listen to them pray we will also gain insight into their hearts.

Hear my prayer, O God; listen to the words of my mouth. Psalm 54:2

...but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer. Psalm 66:19

And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Matthew 6:7

I am at Titus 2 in Action today. Please join me there.

"A girl needs to be so lost in God, that the guy is going to have to seek HIM to find her!" ...Maya Angelou

Jehovah-Rapha, Yahweh-Rophe, The LORD Who Heals

Studying the Names of God with Yolanda at Joy Comes in the Morning from the book LORD, I Want to Know You by Kay Arthur. I am also studying from the book Praying the Names of God by Ann Spangler. I'm a day late in getting this posted this week.

The Name Jehovah-Rapha is first used in Exodus 15:26 by God as He identifies Himself as the healer of His people. The word rapha means heal, cure, restore, or make whole.

So Moses brought Israel from the Red Sea; then they went out into the Wilderness of Shur. And they went three days in the wilderness and found no water. Now when they came to Marah, they could not drink the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name of it was called Marah. And the people complained against Moses, saying, “What shall we drink?” So he cried out to the LORD, and the LORD showed him a tree. When he cast it into the waters, the waters were made sweet.

There He made a statute and an ordinance for them, and there He tested them, and said, “If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians. For I am the LORD who heals you.” Exodus 15:22-26 (emphasis mine)

The word Marah literally means bitter. I found it interesting that it was only three days after experiencing the incredible miracle of God's parting the Red Sea, that the Israelites were bitter in spirit and complaining against Moses who was following God's direction. There is a connection made between this account and what Jesus did for us on the cross. The word bitter used to describe the water is an indication that the water didn't just taste bad but was likely in an unhealthy state which is why the people couldn't drink it. In the same manner our souls are in an unhealthy state in need of purifying before we are followers of Christ. The tree that God instructed Moses to cast into the water is symbolic of the tree that Jesus was nailed to. In His death, Jesus overpowered the bitterness of sin, and in being made alive again, He became sweet, living water for all who seek Him. This is the spiritual healing that is associated with the Name Jehovah-Rapha.

Whether physical, emotional, or spiritual healing is needed we should always seek healing from Jehovah-Rapha first. Whether for an individual or for a nation, healing comes from Jehovah-Rapha.

In the latter part of these verses, just before God identifies Himself as Jehovah-Rapha, He states the responsibility of His people that will bring the blessing or promise associated with this Name. There is a connection between obedience to God and healing. The nation of Israel was to trust God for their healing as they walked in obedience to His word.

Just as we have rules for our children, God gives us commands to protect us. We can look at many of the laws God gave the Israelites and see that He as instructing them as a physician would to prevent and heal illnesses. Many laws for cleansing and quarantines were put in place by God for their physical health.

Anyone the man with a discharge touches without rinsing his hands with water must wash his clothes and bathe with water, and he will be unclean till evening. Leviticus 15:11

If the spot on his skin is white but does not appear to be more than skin deep and the hair in it has not turned white, the priest is to put the infected person in isolation for seven days. Leviticus 13:4

During Christ's life on earth He healed many people of physical illness and disease, but his Healing did not stop at the physical. When He healed His purpose was always to bring healing to the soul as well as the body.

Some men brought to him a paralytic, lying on a mat. When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Take heart, son; your sins are forgiven." Matthew 9:2

Afterward Jesus found him in the temple, and said to him, “See, you have been made well. Sin no more, lest a worse thing come upon you.” John 5:14

This does not mean that all disease is a result of sin, as pointed out in the case of the blind man in John 9, but it does show there is a connection that God wants us to be aware of.

What is one way the Name Jehovah-Rapha speaks to my heart?

There is far too much for me to go into all the ways this Name speaks to me but one of the ways is in the way I as an individual have an impact on the health of the nation. If Jehovah-Rapha promises to heal His People of disease when we walk in obedience to Him, then when our nation is full of moral filth and evil, diseases of the spirit, I have to look at me, His People and sincerely ask Him to search my heart, show me my sins, and help me to turn away from them.

What is one way the Name Jehovah-Rapha speaks to your heart?









"A girl needs to be so lost in God, that the guy is going to have to seek HIM to find her!" ...Maya Angelou