Power of a Praying Woman 10/17/06 9:02 AM Page 30
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The Power of a Praying Woman
Naming Names
Do you ever have trouble remembering names? I know I do. Especially when I meet a large number of people at one time. I can remember faces and names separately, but I don’t always put the right ones together. And that can get me into trouble. With God it’s a different situation. He has only one face, but many, many names. But if we don’t know all of His names, we may not understand all the aspects of His character. God has literally hundreds of names. Sometimes, though, it seems we often have trouble just remembering a few of the basic ones. We may forget one just when we need to remember it. For example, we may think of God as our heavenly Father, but forget that He is also our Husband and Friend. Or we may remember Him as our Comforter, but forget that He is our Deliverer. We might think of Him as our Protector, but fail to remember Him as our Healer. Some people never think of God beyond being their Savior, which in itself is more than we deserve. But God wants to be even more than that to us. He wants us to know all the aspects of His character because the way we recognize God will affect the way we live our lives. Each of God’s names in the Bible represents a way He wants us to trust Him. Do you trust Him to be your Strength (Psalm 18:1)? Is He your Peace (Ephesians 2:14)? Is He the Lifter of Your Head when you are down (Psalm 3:3)? Is He your Re?ner (Malachi 3:2-3)? Your Wisdom (1 Corinthians 1:24)? Your Counselor (Psalm 16:7)? Your Resting Place (Jeremiah 50:6)? Each of His names is sacred, and we must treat each one as such. When I worked in the secular entertainment world in Los Angeles, I heard the word “Jesus” a hundred times a day, spoken as a curse word by people with no reverence, love,