Elohim: The One Who Created You

Prayer:

O God, I'm so excited for this journey on which I'm about to embark. I'm thirsting not only to know more about You, but also to know You more. God, through the power of Your Holy Spirit, help me to discover who You truly are. Open my eyes to see, my ears to hear, and my heart to understand eternal mysteries that only You can reveal on this exciting adventure. Give me the discipline to do my work, the perseverance to continue when I want to give up, and the mind to practically apply all that I learn. Enable me to taste and see that You are good. Show me marvelous things from Your Word. Reveal Your majesty, show me Your glory, and draw me so close to Your heart that I feel, down to the marrow of my bones, that You are the All-Consuming Fire! I ask all this in Jesus' Name, Amen.

Part One: In the Beginning

Memory Verse: In the beginning, God created everything: the heavens above and the earth below. Here's what happened. — Genesis 1:1

The Word declares that our God is a personal God and a loving and forgiving Father. He demands justice, yet extends grace. He is kind and compassionate and allows for free will, but mandates that this free will has consequences when wrongly exercised. However, be- cause of His grace, in the midst of those consequences, God extends mercy and promises to never leave us or forsake us.

Do you ever wonder what our world would be like if everyone knew our God in this way? I do ... often.

The notion that God has continued to impress upon my heart is this: if we are to introduce others to the God whom we know and love, then we must know Him better. When I first had this thought, hard questions followed. Wendy, how well do you really know Me? My heart, My character, My names, and the attributes those names represent?

I must confess — I did not. When I first started reading the Bible, I noticed that the writers referred to God by other names now and then. But I did not pay much attention or question why, and often I could not even pronounce the names! As I studied the Bible more, I learned that each name meant something; sometimes the name pointed to an aspect of God's character, and other times it pointed to how He relates to His people. Over time, I could recite many of those names and pray them eloquently, but I really didn't understand all of them or know where each name originated.

So I immersed myself in the pages of His Word once again, this time inviting God to unveil Himself to me in a fresh way. I prayed, "Show me who You are, God, and why I should care. Reveal to me why You are worthy of being called the One True God; why I should unabashedly love and serve You and You alone. Decipher Your names. Make known Your character. Help me know You better so I can live and walk in the image in which You created me."

As I poured myself into the Scriptures, God answered my prayers. And the more I approached God's Word wi