There’s Just Something About That Name! The Great “I AM.”

There’s Just Something About That Name! The great “I AM!”

Jesus Christ is the great “I AM” (John 8:58). It is important to understand that God’s name is “I AM.” When the children of Israel ask, “What is His name?” Moses was to reply “I AM who I AM” (Exodus 3:13-14). God said, “This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations” (Exodus 3:15). The reason people need to remember and be reminded of this name is that God is in the present. God is in the here and now. He is not in the past. He is not in the future. He is in the present.

Why is knowing this Name so important to them and us? Because it will help us live in the here and now. Today is all I have, all I need, and all I can handle.

At times we fret over the past. We would all like to go back and live at least part of our lives again. There are mistakes we have made that we would like to correct. There are things we did not do that we would like to get done. We have a tendency to dig up bones – exhuming things that are better left alone. We resurrect memories of a life that is dead and gone. (Remember the song, by Randy Travis? Was it, Digging Up Bones?) Some think, in my past I have:

(1) Messed up in a marriage.
(2) Got hooked on drugs/alcohol etc.
(3) Shacked up for a while/had many one night stands.
(4) Lied, stolen, and mistreated others.
(5) Did things I can’t believe I did.
(6) Said things, thought things, and did things that were shameful, sinful, and sometimes just downright stupid.
(7) Left undone things that I should have done, and wasted a lot of my life serving Satan.
(8) Believed things that were not true. Taught things that were not true and therefore practiced things in religion that were not right.
(9) Mistreated, misled, and missed time with my children.
(10) Disobeyed and ignored my parents, and took advantage of my friends.
(11) The list just goes on and on…and on!

But God says, “Don’t go there!” I’m not in the past. My name is not “I was,” but “I AM.” I am the Lamb and the Great I AM. I have taken care of the (your) past. In Jeremiah 31:31ff, God said, “Their sins…..I will remember no more.” If you read Acts 26, I Timothy, and Philippians 3, you’ll see that Paul regretted many things in his past. But he said, “One thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind……I press toward the goal…..” (Phil. 3:13-14). It is good to learn from the past, but not live in it. His name is “I AM” not I “was.”

At other times we fear the future. We also wonder and worry what is going to happen in the future? What’s next? But God says, “Don’t go there!” My name is “I AM,” not “I will be.” He is not only the Lamb who covers the past, He is also the Lord who controls the future. He knows “from eternity…..all His works” (Acts 15:18). He “works all things according to the counsel of His will” (Eph. 1:11). He says, “Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own” (Matt. 6:34, NIV).

We need to live one day at a time. Life by the mile is a trial, by the yard it is hard, but by the inch it is a cinch. Since Jesus has come we can say, “This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm 118:24). God said remember my name for all generations now and forever (Exodus 3:15). It is “I AM.” Don’t fret over the past – I am the Lamb. Don’t fear the future – I am the Lord. And don’t forget that I dwell in the present – I am the great “I AM.” Thank God for Jesus! (2 Cor. 9:15).

Wayne

Read the entire outline here: The Lord…the Lamb…the Great I AM!
https://waynesblogsite.wordpress.com/2015/05/04/the-lord-the-lamb-the-great-i-am/