"Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God." (Psalm 43:5b NIV)
I have three Bibles in regular rotation in the normal course of things: my big, fragile, at-home Bible that was a gift from my adoptive college grandparents; my tiny church Bible that was a gift from my sister; and my medium-sized Bible-study Bible that lives in my Bible study bag and only ventures out on Tuesday mornings during the school year.
One of these Bibles has an addition the others don't. (I have not added to the Word of God, however, but merely indulged in an application exercise.) At the end of Hebrews' "Hall of Faith"—that listing of people who "by faith" were used by God in ways we're still talking about today—my Bible-study Bible reads, "By faith, Elizabeth...."
I wrote this addendum in at the suggestion of a Bible study teacher who encouraged us to see ourselves in God's story of faith...to consider what, "by faith," God might have us do.
I'm taking a similar approach to the "God of..." side trip we've just wrapped up on our Names of God journey.
"My Savior and my God." The personal, possessive pronoun here changes everything.
If Yahweh is only God of Naaman and Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and all the rest, we are missing out on all God is and can be and can do...for, in, and with us.
If God is only God of someone else, I will miss out on all the wastefully extravagant love He longs to lavish on me, as He did on the prodigal.
I will miss out on all the "now I know" moments He longs to lead me to, as He led Naaman.
I will miss out on all the better ways He longs to show me, as He showed Martha.
I will miss out on all the new life He longs to bring out of sure and certain death, as He brought it out for Lazarus and Tabitha.
I will miss out on all the new life He longs to bring out of sure and certain death, as He brought it out for Lazarus and Tabitha.
Oh, friends. How I pray you'll put your name in the blank.
God of __________.
God of __________.
Then, work and wait in confident expectation of what the God of you will do.
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I'd love to hear from you! Feel free to tell me what you really think. Years ago, I explained to my then-two-year-old that my appointment with a counselor was "sort of like going to a doctor who will help me be a better mommy." Without blinking, she replied, "You'd better go every day." All of which is just to say I've spent some time in the school of brutal honesty!