Borrowed Light

The list could go on and on and on. I’m not sure the motivation for wanting to change the name of God. For some it’s a desire to express a way in which we relate to him. One might say “Jesus is my homeboy” because your desire is to express that he is more than a friend. There are many reasons why one might want to call God mother. Some, say they do this in order to blow-up a system of patriarchy. Others might do this to redeem an image of God developed by their own relationship with their mother.

But I would argue that regardless of the reason it is not appropriate (and therefore not helpful) to refer to God as something other than what He has revealed himself. We can only know God as he as chosen to reveal himself. Sure, it might have come out of a patriarchal society and it might have influenced the words used by the biblical authors. But still God has not revealed himself with the name of Mother. Certainly, he reveals himself to have tender and mothering characteristics. But nowhere in the Scriptures does he refer to himself as a mother. Or as “the man upstairs”.

K. Scott Oliphint says it well:

He is to be known rightly only as he reveals himself, and is to be addressed according to his name, not according to some ascription of our own invention. We are not to address God by any other name than the name he has identified as his own. To attempt to tweak the name of God for purposes of cultural (or any other kind of) relevance is not to address God as he has revealed himself, but to address him according to how we want him to be, and thus is to come to him sinfully and in error. (God With Us, 52)

What Oliphint is saying here is that naming God rather than responding to the way in which God has revealed himself is not good because it flips the script. It puts us in charge of God. To name something is to place yourself over that thing. When we go about giving God whatever names we desire, then we are putting ourselves in charge of his identity. And that will never be helpful to us. God is God. We are not.

Therefore, it is best for us to respond to God as he has revealed himself. It is helpful for us to dig into the very names of God and the reason he has revealed himself thusly. Why does God call himself Father and not Mother? Why does God not call himself something distant like “the man upstairs”? Why has revealed himself specifically? Those questions are far more transformative.

A Simple Key to Stability

February 22, 2019Mike Leake

Stability.

I don’t believe I’ve ever realized how deeply I long for stability. I have battled anxiety off and on for most of my life. Anxiety and stability aren’t friends. The anxious heart can be tossed to and fro by imaginary things. Your feet can be firmly placed upon a rock…that you don’t trust because it might have a little bit of that green moss on it, and you know how slippery that stuff is, and your cheap shoes you bought at Wal-Mart don’t have the best traction, and rocks are hard, people have died from falling on rocks, this combination will certainly lead to my demise.

And this is where I’m realizing that my anxiety isn’t just a foible, an emotional malady, a thing I “struggle with”, but very much a treacherous God-hating sin. I don’t trust the rock he said would hold me…regardless of the moss, the shoes, the dangers. I’m not a victim. I’m a block-headed child.

“I have set the LORD always before me; because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken.” (Psalm 16:8)

Anxiety happens when the LORD isn’t set before me. It’s an illustration which has been used so many times that it’s almost become meaningless. But perhaps it can bear the weight of one more preacher trying to make a point. When Peter was upon the waves he walked on water when the LORD was set before him. But when he turned his gaze his anxiety took over and he fell into the water. He was shaken…and almost drowned as a result.

Stability comes from having the LORD set before me. It sound so incredibly simple but this is the point the Psalmist is making in Psalm 16. Some believe this Psalm is a reflection upon death. Others, certainly rightly, view this as a Psalm to be placed on the mouth of our Lord. This perspective certainly exemplifies Christ and explains how he was able to endure the Cross. He had to endure the most volatile situation in the history of humanity and yet he remained rock-solid and stable. How? Because he always had the Father set before Him.

When we set our eyes upon the immovable, powerful, unchanging, and yet personal God we find that no matter how slippery our steps might appear they are actually upon the immovable rock. And the more we look towards the Lord the more we are suddenly transformed into anxious and fearful worriers to those who are not shaken.

According to Psalm 16:9 glad hearts, rejoicing, and security comes from this heart posture. So in the midst of anxiety don’t neglect the very simple practice and posture of setting the Lord before you.

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