El Shaddai tells us our God is all-sufficient.
Abram, a childless old man, was ninety-nine when God appeared to him and made a staggering promise. This God Almighty, El Shaddai, would make a covenant of multiplication between him as Abram walked before Him. The grief of barrenness had long been part of Abram’s story; Sarai’s arms and womb void of children.
And yet this El Shaddai moved near. The “All-Sufficient One, The Lord God Almighty,” was named El Shaddai seven times in Scripture, exclusively in the Old Testament. And while El points us to God, Shaddai is thought by many to have derived from the Hebrew word shad meaning “breast.” God calls Himself El Shaddai because He Himself is able to meet our needs completely, satisfying us uniquely as a nursing mother does her child—a God who freely gives, a God who freely sustains, a God who freely blesses. Enough love and grace and nearness for a broken world.
El Shaddai was spoken for the first time to Abram, a man who no doubt had dreams for his family that did not match its reality. In God’s kindness He essentially proclaims to him, “I know what you truly long for, and I’m here to satisfy you beyond every dream of what you think that will look like.” God, the better fulfilment, the only All-Sufficient One—this God, our God, satisfies. In the depths of our aches and our pains, He can meet our needs. Abundantly. Yes, the needs of weakness and insufficiency in our grief. Yes, the loneliness and emptiness—the voids and the doubts. Yes, the anxiety, the fears, the longing for something not yet. God meets us here in all of this. Today. “His grace is sufficient for you, for [His] power is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9).
Prayer (song by Amy Grants)
El-Shaddai, El-Shaddai [means "God Almighty, God Almighty"]
El-Elyon na Adonai [means "God in the highest, Oh, Lord"]
Age to age, You're still the same
By the power of the name
El-Shaddai, El-Shaddai
Erkamka na Adonai [means "We will love You, Oh, Lord"]
We will praise and lift You high
El-Shaddai
Through Your love, And through the ram
You saved the son, Of Abraham
Through the power, Of Your hand
Turned the sea, Into dry land
To the outcast, On her knees
You were the God, Who really sees
And by Your might, You set Your children free
Through the years, You made it clear
That the time of Christ, Was near
Though the people, Couldn't see
What Messiah ought to be, Though Your Word
Contained the plan, They just could not understand
Your most awesome work was done, Through the frailty of Your son
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