I think one reason God has so many names is because His identity is so great and so multi-faceted, that He needs many names to fully reveal Himself to us. And I think He wants us to fully experience each one of His names.

The Jehovah I know well? Is Jehovah-Jireh. I grew up singing,

Jehovah-Jireh, my provider His grace is sufficient for me, for me, for me, Jehovah-Jireh, my provider His grace is sufficient for me.

We all knew Jehovah-Jireh meant "The Lord who provides." But literally, it means "The Lord will see to it." I like that. The Lord will see to it. How are you going to pay your mortgage, Laura? The Lord will see to it! How are you going to afford a new car? The Lord will see to it. It has a ring of trust and knowing that's fitting of a daughter and her Dad. My Dad? He's got the checkbook, just tell him how much.

The first mission trip I ever went on, was with a charismatic youth organization called Teen World Outreach. We had Boot Camp in upstate New York on the Elim Bible Institute campus. My team was New York City bound. But when I was raising funds, after all was said and done, I was $100 short. My parents had already put their part in. You know what happened? The Lord saw to it. By the time I left, the funds had come in.

When I finally actually moved to New York, life was a bit more complicated. I had no job, and sat for a week in training for the New York Board of Education with about 1000 other people. When one of the speakers got up and asked how many people had no job yet, about 700 raised their hands. My competition. At some point during the training, the representatives from the teacher's union got up and raffled off tickets to a Broadway play in November. As soon as the tickets were announced, a spirit of faith welled up in me. I knew that I knew that I knew that I was going to win those tickets.

Sure enough my name was called. I knew it was Jehovah-Jireh's promise to me that He was going to take care of me. Tickets to a November play meant I would still be in New York in November. They were the promise of a job.

I don't want to pretend that life has always been perfect. I've known lean times. I can remember my mom visiting once and buying me dental floss. I kind of sat and stared at in wonder, thinking 'Wow, this is a luxury. I never thought I would be so poor I couldn't afford dental floss." And, I can remember eating boxes of stuffing or mashed potatoes for weeks on end for dinner because they filled me up, and it's all I could afford.

BUT, at the same time I was living in a studio apartment in Queens for $495 a month rent. (That's amazing in case you didn't know.) I had happened to see an ad in the paper the day it came out, and jumped on it. Even an hour later, and I may not have gotten in. But my dad, Jehovah-Jireh--he saw to it.

When I moved back to the Portland area, I overreached a bit and rented a beautiful 2-bedroom apartment. It was just out of reach and I got to the point where I had to sell off furniture to eat. Living by faith became such a regular thing in those days that if I had $20 left to eat for 2 weeks, I would go out to a restaurant and buy a steak dinner because at that point I knew Dad had to provide anyway and He had tons of cattle on a thousand hills, He could afford to kill one for me. And He always did. It became a bit of an adventure and I saw Him fulfill my needs so regularly that It stopped being stressful and started being fun. I'd jump off a cliff and smile up at Him and wait for Him to catch me.

It's been awhile since I've thought about these things, because honestly I tend to take His provision for granted now. Except when He surprises me with miracles. (See my last post.)

I have found God to be a good father who sees to my needs. I fully know Jehovah-Jireh. I want to know Jehovah Shalom again, the God I knew in my youth before my problems were big (in my eyes, anyway.) I want to know Jehovah Rapha and be healed of some of the chronic illnesses which plague my body. I want to know and experience Jesus as my Counselor and learn to hear His words of wisdom for my life. I want to dance with the Ancient of Days.

Which name of God do you long to experience? Which Jehovah do you know?

Photo Cred: Google Maps

This is the building with the tiny but oh so affordable studio in Woodside, Queens.

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