Day 142: El Shaddai

It's been over a year since I started walking with the Lord again. A year since I gave up trying to pull myself together and went to the one who makes all things new. Sometimes, I think of what my life would've been.

It's scary just thinking about it.

I would most likely be married, and perhaps even have a child on the way.

Like I said...scary!

Last year, I had the chance to go to my first ever Women's Night in Prayer at Solid Rock. This event has been going for a few years, but I never gave thought to actually doing it when I lived in Forest Grove. The thought of just getting out to Solid Rock was a feat, let alone staying out there to pray for six hours in the middle of the night.

But, after going back to church last year, and trying desperately to get plugged in, I was overwhelmed with excitement at the thought of being a part of this event. It was an experience that I'll never forget, and one that stretched me in a variety of ways.

Needless to say, I could go on forever about how it went.

What I want to focus on, at the center of all that awesomeness, was the name card that I received that night. Like they also did this year (and may have done in the previous years that I did not attend), the leaders gave one specific card that had a specific name for God on it.

We were told to take a moment, look at our cards, and share what we think they meant for us.

My card? The name of God that I received that night?

God Almighty. BOOM, BAM, in my face. I knew exactly what it meant. And, the verses on the card shed major light on what I already knew was true in my heart:

“For I am the LORD your God who stirs up the sea, causing its waves to roar. My name is the LORD Almighty, and I have put my words in your mouth, and hidden you safely within my hand.” Isaiah 51: 15-16

“When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to him and said, 'I am El-Shaddai – God Almighty.' Serve me faithfully and live a blameless life. I will make a covenant with you, by which I will guarantee to give you countless descendants.” Genesis 17:1-2

In my life, up to that point, I had been relying on everything within me to get me through life. I was finishing up my teaching degree, living with my boyfriend, and trying to build a home on sand. There was no firm foundation for anything in my life, and that is why everything began to crumble.

When I moved out, and away from that situation, I felt God showing me how powerful He was...and not only that he was El Roy, the God who saw me, but He was El Shaddai, God Almighty.

So, when I read that card on my card ring from the Women's Night of Prayer, I remember a very specific time in my life when God showed his power, and then clued me in on it by showing me this name and its relevance in my life.

It is a struggle to allow Him to be El-Shaddai in a world that champions the “self-made” man, but when you have tried to go that route, and failed, is when you realize just how great it is that He is in control.

In Christ,

Lilia