In the Old Testament, the Hebrews used different names for God as they experienced His different characteristics. Separating the different aspects, made it easier to know Him personally. This week I'm discovering an aspect of God's character that is found in the first chapter of the first book of the Bible. We find the name Elohim in Genesis. The name denotes God's amazing power.
In Genesis, chapter one Elohim (God), created the Heavens and the Earth. This was in the beginning, before there was anything. It was absolutely new. He created animal life, plant life and spiritual life. He created everything .... out of nothing.
This is hard for me to comprehend. Since I am a created being, I only know about created things but I want to know the Creator.
David wrote about Elohim in Psalm 29. He wrote with powerfully descriptive terms.
the God of glory thunders
The voice of the Lord breaks the cedars;
The voice of the Lord strikes with flashes of lightning and shakes the desert, and twists the oaks
Yet David ends this Psalm with "the Lord blesses His people with peace."
My God is almighty and powerful and fearsome. He creates and destroys, yet He blesses me with peace. Knowing this part of God, is being sure that He is always in control. There is nothing going on in my life that God is not in control of.
Peace: I have experienced this in the rare moments when I remember that He is in charge and I am not. When I give up the worrying and the fixing and simply leave it in God's hands, I experience the peace He gives.
Romans 4:17 says that God gives life to the dead and calls things into existence that do not exist. I have not experienced the miracles that I read about in the Bible, but I have no doubt that they did occur and still do today. What I have experienced is new life in my dead soul. Love, peace and harmony became evident in my life where they did not exist before. This is Elohim.
I may never fully comprehend Elohim, this side of Heaven, but the more I think about and meditate on this aspect of his character, the more real he becomes to me and the more peace I experience when remembering how powerful he is.
How have you experienced Elohim? Visit the Christian Living Forum, I would love to hear your story.
