365 Days of the Great Names of God, Day 69: Guide

Guide

"For this God is our God for ever and ever; he will be our guide even to the end." (Psalm 48:14 NIV)

When God's chosen people first set out on their journey of freedom away from the Egyptians, Yahweh provided divine GPS via a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. 

Sometimes I long for God's leading today to be as obvious and unmistakable as those pillars. Yet what He provides now is so much better, because that ancient guidance was for a specific group of people at a specific time, whereas His present guidance is for all people, at any time.

Over the course of my life, I've collected a few stepping stones to help me try to figure out if my Guide is leading me down a certain path. This is not some express highway of decision-making, but maybe it will provide a little sure footing for your journey, too.

A ~ Ask God what He thinks. This is otherwise known as prayer, and I know it's an obvious stone to start with, but you might be surprised at the number of journeys I've started off on in my life without consulting God first.

B ~ Be aware of holy nudges. These are those little Holy Spirit twinges in your mind or that emotional sore tooth that keeps pinging, either steering you further down a path or halting you before you take another step.

C ~ Carefully consider God's Word on the matter. The antiquity of Scripture does not diminish its present authority or applicability. 

D ~ Draw from the wisdom of careful counselors. Mature friends of faith, trustworthy clergy members, teachers of truth...God can use all these human pillars to lead us along.

E ~ Expect God's confirmation. Our loving Guide wants us to know His will. It's not as if He's clutching it to Himself, shrouding it from us and hoping we won't guess what it is. Earnestly seek His direction—and then wait in confident expectation that He will give it.

"Then you will know which way to go, since you have never been this way before" (Joshua 3:4 NIV).

365 Days of the Great Names of God, Day 68: Way-Maker

Way-Maker

"'Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground. The Egyptians will know that I am the LORD when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horseman.'" (Exodus 14:15b, 16, 18)

There's no way.

How many times have I said this in the face of a seemingly impossible situation? 

Certainly the newly freed Israelite captives must have had that thought when they were looking ahead of them at the expanse of Red Sea and over their shoulders at the advancing Egyptian army. 

There was no way. 

And, in fact, there wasn't a way...until the Way-Maker made one. 

Again and again throughout Scripture, we see examples of God making a way where there is no way. We might wonder why He so often chooses to work drastically. He could, after all, have led his people out of Egypt along an easy, clear-cut path to freedom. He could have plucked Joseph out of the cistern his brothers threw him into and sent him merrily along back to his father. He could have healed Lazarus' sickness long before it ever landed him in a (temporary) grave.

But just think how many wandering souls across all generations have looked at the example of God parting the Red Sea and have found their own faith and hope and courage emboldened by it. This would not have been the case if the path had been smooth and obvious. There would not have been such a story to tell.

The Way-Maker wants us to be in awe of Him and what He can do not because He's on some kind of egotistic power-trip but because He knows reverence for Him keeps us correctly connected to the Source of true power. 

The next time I fall into thinking, "There's no way," I need to remember the Way-Maker and reframe my thoughts: "I may not be able to see the way right now, but I can look to the One I know is making it."

"In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed. In your strength you will guide them to your holy dwelling. (Exodus 15:13 NIV)

365 Days of the Great Names of God, Day 67: Stronghold

Stronghold

"He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge." (Psalm 144:2 NIV)

Oh, friends, I'm so excited to share this name of God with you, because it took some unraveling for me to make sense of what seemed like a contradiction about it. 

God is referred to as our stronghold—a very good thing—more than a half-dozen times on the pages of Scripture. But I struggled with this particular name because, in Bible studies I've done in the past, strongholds have been presented as bad things. 

In general terms, a stronghold is a place of refuge, a fortress—and God surely is that. But if we run to a shelter that is not God and make it our source of security, it can become a stronghold. In her Breaking Free study, Beth Moore defines a stronghold (lowercase "s") as "anything not of God that is mastering me." 

Clearly (blessedly), this is another example of how something apart from God can harm us while when it is with God, it can help us. God's Word beautifully backs this up, lamenting earthly strongholds and lauding God our Stronghold. 

• "Here now is the man who did not make God his stronghold but trusted in his great wealth and grew strong by destroying others!” (Psalm 52:7 NIV)

• "The salvation of the righteous comes from the LORD; he is their stronghold in time of trouble." (Psalm 37:39 NIV)

• "The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds." (2 Corinthians 10:4 NIV)

• "The LORD is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?" (Psalm 27:1 NIV)

Earthly strongholds promise us security but then trap us so that we are bound up in and by whatever is holding us: a job, a relationship, a habit, a "comfort," a goal. God does not want us to have strongholds, but He does want to be our Stronghold.

Earthly strongholds confine us, while our eternal Stronghold frees us. Earthly strongholds rule us as tyrants, while our eternal Stronghold protects us as a gentle shepherd. And earthy strongholds, left unchecked, ultimately destroy us, while our eternal Stronghold delivers us—to Himself.