Confident Faith in El Shaddai
Scripture: Psalm 132: 2, 5 (NIV).
Program Ideas
El Shaddai – The Lord God Almighty; the All Sufficient One
Cover the tables where the women will be sitting with butcher paper. Give everyone a rock that is big enough to paint their name and a design on it. Display the rocks to show how the church family is built on each individual to make a whole. (This idea will be further explained in the devotional).
Paint Party
Place easels, blank canvasses, paint brushes, paint, and water cups on the tables. Invite the women paint a picture of what El Shaddai looks like to them. It can be a picture of nature—ocean scenes, mountain scenes, waterfalls, the different seasons. Encourage them to be creative. Have available pictures from postcards and magazines, to give them some ideas.
They could also paint ways in the Bible where God sustained the Israelites in the Old Testament while in the wilderness—parting of the Red Sea, manna from heaven, or water from a rock.
Create a prayer room with opportunities to meet with El Shaddai.
- Kneeling pillows.
- Journals with pens/pencils.
- Prayer board for praises and concerns.
- Display your paintings as encouragement to others.
- Create a place for worship with music playing.
- Have a miniature scale of the Tabernacle on display with all the elements. Inexpensive paper models are available through Amazon. Pray through the pieces of the Tabernacle that were made of clay and covered in gold—the table of showbread, the lampstands, the laver of water, the bowl of incense. This is a beautiful time of worship as you walk through and see Jesus as God Almighty, the All Sufficient One.
Service Projects
- Make and take pottery. Invite the women to paint two inexpensive pieces of pottery. They can make one for themselves and give the other to someone who needs encouragement, kindness, or a reminder that the All Sufficient One is actively working for their good and His glory! (Ideas for help: Local pottery place, Etsy, Pinterest, Dollar Tree.)
- Take a painting class on the go to a nursing home or assisted living center. Teach them to paint a simple picture of nature to take back to their rooms. (Resources can be found on Pinterest and Etsy. Items can be purchased from Dollar Tree.)
- Invite the women to make journals where they can place their prayer requests. Remind them to leave space for them to record the date when The Lord God Almighty answered the desire of their heart. (Resources can be found on Pinterest, Etsy, or Hobby Lobby)
What’s In a Name
In the winter months, I tend to binge watch TV shows or Netflix series to help pass the long, dark, cold evenings until Spring. Recently, I found a Canadian series called Heartland and decided to watch a few episodes. The storyline revolves around the Bartlett family as they experience life on a ranch going back six generations. The individual threads of each family member are woven together and create a beautiful tapestry of the ups, downs, twists, turns, highs, and lows of everyday life.
In one episode of Heartland, the family met in the living room of the ranch house built by hand by Great-Great-Great Grandpa Bartlett. They gathered around the stone hearth made by a man not personally known by any in that room but imagined by all through family stories passed from generation to generation. A tradition had been born in the Bartlett family that when a new member arrived, a stone in the hearth would receive the name given to the child. That stone and name became the bedrock of all Bartlett’s past and present. They would tell the family stories to all those yet to come.
Names are important to God. It is how He identifies Himself to His people. He gives us insight into His character, who He is as well as what He does. At the opening of scripture, we see God as Elohim, Creator extraordinaire. He revealed Himself to Abraham as Jehovah Jireh, The Lord Will Provide. To Moses in the wilderness, He was Jehovah Nissi, the Lord Who Fights our Battles. To David He was Yahweh Roi, the Lord is my Shepherd. God’s names are forever etched in scripture from Genesis to Revelation.
In Psalm 132:2, 5, David calls God by His name El Shaddai—the Mighty One; Almighty God. It can also be translated as The All-Sufficient One. We first see this name and attribute of God in Genesis 17:1 when He speaks with Abram. El Shaddai, the Lord Almighty, tells Abram he will be the father of many nations, yet he was old, childless, and had no heir. God will do what no one else can. He is all powerful and totally sufficient within Himself. He needs no help from mankind to accomplish His plans. This historical account was told to all of Abraham’s descendants and David came to know God personally as the Almighty God.
King David is recalling a memory in Psalm 132 of when he desired to build a permanent house for the presence of God to dwell (2 Samuel 7). He promised the Lord, the Mighty One, he would do what was purposed in his heart. However, God had other plans.
Up to this point in David’s life, he had gone from being a shepherd to a battle worthy conqueror. He then became king over God’s people. God reminded David that all that had been accomplished in his life was due to His presence and almighty power. (2 Samuel 7: 8 – 13). All powerful is not only what God possesses but who He is.
If you read the rest of Psalm 132, you will see God, in His Almighty power, makes a dwelling place for Himself and by Himself. He chooses Zion which includes all of Israel. He was thinking even bigger than David who only thought of a small plot of land. God was letting David know He wanted to dwell in the midst of His people just as He did in the tabernacle in the wilderness. He wanted to sit center stage and no building could contain Almighty God. He says in vs 14, “This is my resting place for ever and ever. Here I will sit enthroned, for I have desired it.”
The Lord God Almighty is a name we need to draw on daily so we can thrive in our living, not just survive. We may run out of energy, grace, compassion, patience, but God is sufficient in and of Himself. His resources are endless, and He is capable of giving us exactly what we need, when we need it. When we meet with El Shaddai, He is always enough and so much more. I pray this makes us want to encounter His presence all day long. “He is all I need. He is all I need. Jesus is all I need.”
Cites Used
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