I used to be afraid to trust God. And it bothered me.
I wanted to slip my hand in His and let Him lead.
I wanted to put my concerns in His capable arms
and believe He could take better care of them than I could.
I wanted to have more faith.
But I didn’t. And one day I realized why.
It’s hard to trust someone we don’t really know.
Therein was the reason for my hearts hesitancy to fully rely on God.
You see, I knew a lot about God but I didn’t really know God.
So I decided to start spending time with Him like a friend, getting to know Him.
Talking to Him with simple-sentence and conversational prayers
listening to Him through promises in His Word
depending on Him in different circumstances
relying on Him in faith as I struggled with different fears.
Over time my “knowing” and trusting God got stronger and stronger.
And my depth of dependence grew as I depended on Him and found He is dependable.
What about you? Do you ever struggle with trusting God, like really trusting Him and fully relying on Him to meet your needs like I have? One thing that has really helped me get to know God and push through my fear of dependence is remembering the names of God and giving Him a chance to show me the faithfulness of His character through the power of His names.
The truth is we can’t know God as Jehovah Jireh, our Provider, if we aren’t in need. And when we are, we can learn to trust Him as we depend on Him to meet ours needs. The more we do this, the more our trust will deepen and our relationship with Christ with be strengthened.
Our confidence in Him will grow as we live in the powerful promise of this beautiful verse: “Those who know your name trust you, O LORD, because you have never deserted those who seek your help” (Psalm 9:10). Let’s pray: Lord, I want to know You for who You really are. I desire to trust and follow You more and more each day.
Knowing God By Name – printable
I’d love to send you a FREE “Knowing God By Name” printable. Simply enter your email below ( I promise not to share it with anyone.)
ENTER TO WIN: I Know His Name by Wendy Blight
My friend, Wendy Blight, has written a five-session Bible study about discovering power in the names of God. This study is for any woman who wants to move beyond simply knowing about God to really knowing God in a very personal way. This study will help women to:
- Realize their infinite worth as they explore the nature of the God who created and formed them.
- Live with bold assurance that their God is a personal God who sees them, hears them, and knows them by name.
- Walk confidently in knowing both who they are and Whose they are.
- Arm themselves with seven tools to pray more confidently and effectively in any situation or circumstance.
- Transform their walk with Jesus as they discover how He fulfills the Old Testament names of God.
ENTER TO WIN by sharing why you’d like to study this topic and have a copy of Wendy’s new book. Simply click SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS below. One winner will be randomly selected on Friday and notified via email.
I want to have a copy on the study of the Names of God. There will be so much joy like anyone else to understand and deepen my relationship with Him for His Name is above every Name.
It’s my deep desire to continue to learn all I can about our wonderful glorious savior! My word for the year is TRUST and I think going through this bible study with book in hand will teach me to trust even more in God and His goodness.
I want to know know God deeper. I desire to trust and follow Him more each and everyday! I want to put my life in his hands completely and be obedient in what he asks of me in my life. I know he has plans for me and I can’t control them only he can. I want the fulfillment of ease and peace in my heart that only God can provide us with!
God bless
The best way to know someone is to spend time with them learning all you can about them. I would love to spend more time getting to know our AWESOME God, Father, Friend, Lord, Savior, on a more personal level.
Thank you and God bless you!
As Renee said I want to really know God not just know about him, I believe this book will help me draw closer to him.
I have been leading a bible study at our church and think this would be a great study to include!
Janice, what a gift to your church that you have the passion and giftedness to lead Bible study! Thanks for sharing. This book is a great study for churches and neighborhood Bible studies because it is short (5 weeks) and has DVD teachings to compliment the teachings each week (15-18 minutes). I would be honored for you to use it!
Blessings,
Wendy Blight
Im so grateful for this ministry & I seek help in walking out my faith!
I would like this study because I am tried of saying that I know and trust God but not truly Believing it myself… I really want to believe and live what I say I believe and know!!!
i would love this book. i truly never knew that god has so many names. i know of maybe 3 and that about it. please i hope i win and would love to get more personal with my lord . thank u and god bless so much.
I am really enjoying learning more about the Names Of God. I would love to share a copy with a Friend!
Hi Wendy, right before this study I purchased a daily devotional by Christopher D. Hudson titled 100 Names of God. When I saw you were offering this Bible study my heart leaped. God had led during the month of February to get to know Him better, up close and personal. I bought the devotion but I’m even more excited about an instructional Bible study. One guiding me to his very heart and character. I’m looking forward to what He is going to with me & our relationship through my obedience of continuing my journey by participating in this study. Knowing Him all the more means everything to me.
I’m so excited that you are joining us Georgetta!! I love that you have a devotional with 100 names of God. Wow!! Be sure to share along the way. Thanks for stopping by today.
Blessings,
Wendy
One of my prayers has been to know God in a more personal way I love my Pastor – but I want to know God like he knows God. I want to know the God that Renee Swope knows.
I believe along the way we get messed up by life – the distractions – the losses – the illnesses – and sometimes God feels so far away – or maybe we have moved farther away because we don’t understand Him like we think we should.
For me it’s been a struggle to know Him better. I didn’t know that grieving for my son’s murder 11 years ago – would take so much out of me – mentally, emotionally, physically and financially. But more importantly spiritually. I was told by ministers that my negative thoughts caused his murder, that I didn’t pray right when I asked the Lord to save him and keep watch over him – that had I prayed right it wouldn’t have happened. I know it’s been 11 years but I still struggle at times with wondering how a loving God could allow this to happen. I haven’t been to find how God is going to work this for good.
I’ve asked the Lord more times than I can count – why – and is this my payback for what I did when I was younger. I thought when God saved you and delivered you from drugs and alcohol (that was almost 20 years ago that He set me free) – that I wouldn’t have to pay for things I should have done that I didn’t. But as I’ve been told you reap what you sow – and maybe, just maybe if I understood God better, I could find some peace with my son.
Be blessed.
Oh, sweet friend, you do need to study and know the names of God!! God does NOT “pay us back” for things we do or don’t do. And as you meet God in His Word and in His names, you’ll come to know him intimately and personally and we see His great love for you and how the bad that comes into our lives is not sent by Him, but He is there to help us, equip us and carry us through it. We live in a world where people make bad choices and bad things happen, but God is good. I’m sorry your pastor said those things to you. They are not biblical, my friend.
We know that bad happens in this world because we have a God who says that but then promises He will work it for good. I was raped at knifepoint by a man hiding in my apartment at age 21. For over a decade, I did not see how God could ever work it for good. But he did!!! He opened the door to a ministry for me to help others and equip others to walk through these hard times. The book is Hidden Joy in a Dark Corner.
We are thankful you stopped by to share your story and your heart. May God touch you in a very real and personal way so that you will know that He deeply loves you and cares about you. I promise if you get into His Word every day, He will minister healing to your heart.
Blessings,
Wendy
I so long to know God in such a way that My first thought in any situation is His. I want to Trust Him and not allow my feelings to dictate my life. I’m excited to get into the Names of God Study!
I would love to know God more. Sometimes I think I just know about Him.
I like to show God’s other names… I learned a few before.. I enjoy reading
what Wendy writes..
I want to understand all of God. That includes His names that he goes by.
This book sounds like it is something God wants me to read. Like it will meet me where I am at right now. Thank you!
I need to really see and absorb God in different lights. So often I forget His intimate love as a daddy and feel that He is angry and disappointed with me.
I’ve always wanted to study the Names of God. Wendy’s book sounds fantastic.
Thanks for this!
I agree with your opening statement… We can’t really begin to know God until we begin to trust Him with our lives. It’s then that we find Him dependable to meet our every need. Interesting that His names match our needs… Cant wait to begin the study.
Would love to win book to give to my daughter? I love mine!!!!
I have been desiring to dig deeper into God’s character. I believe the more I truly know God in my heart, the more I will learn to trust Him fully and freely. Thank you, Renee and Wendy.
I am going through a very difficult time right now dealing with chronic pain that has doctors stumped as far as the cause. I want to fully give it over to God, not taking it back from His capable hands. I am hoping that in reading more about God and deepening my faith, I can continue to grow in faith and love for my King and Creator.
I want to learn to depend on God more.
To know Him by name and to be able to call on Him and know He is there. That is how I want to know Him.
I would be blessed & honored to receive this powerful book!!!
Johovah Jirah our provider!!!!
I would love this study to go deeper into knowing who God is and to really, really believe that he won’t forsake me or help me when I need him in the most desperate of ways. Lately, circumstances have put me in a situation where I have to trust Him when I can’t see a solution. I’m so desperate to hear him and see restoration that because I don’t see anything viable happening I feel that He has overlooked and forgotten me. I want to know all of who He is and who I am to Him.
Lord, my desire is to know You and to love You more…more than anything else in the entire world!!! Amen, Amen and Amen…Toni
I’ve been wanting to learn the names of God so that it would direct my prayers toward the different traits of his character.
I would love to learn more about His names! I’ve already purchased the book for myself but if I were to win I would give it to my sister!
I would love to get this study so that I can draw closer to the Lord. And it would be a great summer Bible study for me and my accountability sisters!
I would love to a gain a deeper relationship with God and get to know him on a deeper level!
Reading your words brought me to tears. Im so glad I opened this email. I do feel God led me to this, thank you so much for your wisdom/ insight and for the information about this study!
Thanks for today’s devotion, it’s a blessing to read & enjoy your messages. Looking forward to reading this book & getting to know God better. Would make an awesome summer Bible Study.
I am striving daily to have a stronger faith and relationship with God:)
I would love to get this. Recently my husband and I have been going through and extreme roller coaster with me confessing about my affair I had. I’m so ashamed of myself for allowing that to me and our family, because I wasn’t happy. I am fighting for our marriage now, because my husband is in turmoil everyday since I have told. There is not a day since 09/27/2015 when I confessed that it doesn’t come up about “how could you do this” and sometimes name calling comes, but I know it’s out of hurt. I know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose and I have heard of so many stories where couples have made it and are better than ever now. I am also not only repairing my relationship with my husband, but also with God, because I betrayed him too, by falling away and not heeding to His Word. I’m 27 with 2 boys and now we have another one on the way. I feel right now my life is in disarray trying to be strong for everyone and understand the hurt that I’ve caused my husband. I just pray that if the Lord let’s it be that this book will help me to pray more confidently and also walk more confidently with our Father in Heaven. Blessings!
Thought this was really good and I needed to hear it today. This week is a struggling with this week as mom begins chemo again. I want to trust Him and part of it is because I don’t know him well at all. It is hard for me since I don’t know how to experience His love for me.
I started this study today and I’m anxious to learn the names of God and draw closer to him during this group study. So blessed to be a part of P31 bible studies.
I was just looking up the different names of God this morning. I choose a word to live by this year and that word is faith. As Renee said our faith grows into proportion as to how well we know God. I hope by the end of this year I can say ” Yes Lord I trust you no matter what and I think this would be a great tool to help me reach my goal. Thank you.
I am so excited and eager to learn more about the Names of God! I want to be able to say like Job”My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you!”
I would love to do this study on the names of God. I have been in ministry for several years, but personally still struggle with believing that God knows and cares about me personally. My faith has truly been tested over the past couple of years with some very deep church hurt — broken relationships and deep pain — and at times I have wondered how God could let it happen, but He has proven Himself faithful time and time again. I just have to keep walking with Him.
Love the concept of getting to know God so that I can trust Him more fully. Well illustrated by the relationship with JJ.
Interested in the names of God study and I may purchase it whether I win or not.
Thanks
I struggle with trusting just about anyone, and especially men, due to the rejection I’ve suffered at the hands of about every man that has been in my life, including my dad. I would love to win this book so that I can maybe learn how to trust God and move forward in my life with others.
I struggle with reading the Bible as I should and recently felt that maybe I could do a Bible study at home – this sounds like it would be a great one!! I am also interesting in the praying piece as I do pray but there are times when I am really now sure what to pray and it also may give me the confidence to pray out loud which I am not currently comfortable with.
Thanks so much for the opportunity!!
God works wonders all the time. I read a morning devotion that mentioned some of the names of God and their meanings and I thought to myself…I need to study up on them. Write them down and memorize them. Was actually going to google them tonight at home. Thanks for the opportunity to win this. I will be looking into getting this even if I don’t win. I can share with a friend. Have a blessed day!
I would love to know all the names of God. When you know someone’s name, you feel like you know them as a person, someone you can relate to. I have a desire to be closer to God but honestly, it’s hard to relate to Him as anyone else around me. I would love that personal, intimate connection to Him, that personal “friendship”. Knowing more about Who He Is would help me in being closer to Him.
My pastor did a study about a year ago on the names of God and I have been fascinated ever since. I feel the more I know his names, I can call on him personally, by name and draw closer. I would love to have this book and be able to delve even further into learning and studying the names of our Almighty God.
My reasons for wanting this particular Bible study are two fold. First, I teach 6-8 th grade girls in our Inner City ministry. I love this age group! They are at an age where they are starting to ask questions and develop their own faith. We talk a lot about being respectful during prayer especially but also during class time because of who God is and how we want to respond to that knowledge but I find that really they have very little knowledge about the facets of God other than Creator and Savior and I have struggled with that knowledge and how to communicate it myself. Secondly, I have been without a job for over a year now. As a single woman without any other means of support, this had been a challenging time! I’ve been trying to lean into God promises and some days I do better than others. The best part is on the days I’m leaning more on myself and therefore struggling more, it seems like I always come across a scripture or lesson that reminds me He is in control. I feel like this study will be a full meal on why I should trust God and not the tidbits of nourishment that I’m only choosing to take in right now.
I’m still a fairly new Christ follower, I accepted Christ as my savior on September 10, 2014. At first I had this hunger for Him and His word but lately I’ve been struggling big time. I still fully believe in God and all His promises and that He is in control of my life, but somehow I’m struggling making quiet time a priority. I think this book would be a great step in me getting to know Him better and get back into a close relationship with our Lord! 🙂
Thank you, Renee, for your beautiful P31 devotion today and for sharing and giving away a copy of my new book, “I Know His Name.” I’ve enjoyed reading the comments and have been blessed by the stories and desires of women’s hearts to get to know God more intimately!
Blessings,
Wendy
Thank YOU Wendy for joining us here and for sharing your heart in the comments. Also, thank you for sharing your beautiful gifts of teaching and scripture studies with us through your new beautiful Bible Study!