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An Easter Meditation: "What Is His Name?"© Sound Mind Investing | April 2010
Many years ago when I was going through a difficult trial, I found great encouragement in The God of All Comfort, a book in which the author looks at the many names by which God calls Himself. I return to it occasionally in my daily devotions, enjoying her many reminders that, despite the circumstances, God is always worthy of our complete trust. — AP
In the Gospel of John, Christ adopts the name of "I am" as His own. When the Jews were questioning Him as to His authority, He said unto them: "Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was I am." And in the Book of Revelation He again declares: "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty." These simple words, "I am," express therefore eternity and unchangeableness of existence, which is the very first element necessary in a God who is to be depended upon. No dependence could be placed by any one of us upon a changeable God. He must be the same yesterday, today, and forever, if we are to have any peace or comfort. 
But is this all His name implies, simply "I am"? I am what? — we ask. What does this "I am" include? I believe it includes everything the human heart longs for and needs. This unfinished name of God seems to me like a blank check signed by a rich friend given to us to be filled in with whatever sum we may desire. The whole Bible tells us what it means. Every attribute of God, every revelation of His character, every proof of His undying love, every declaration of His watchful care, every assertion of His purposes of tender mercy, every manifestation of His loving kindness — all are the filling out of this unfinished "I am." God tells us through all the pages of His Book what He is. "I am," He says, "all that my people need"; "I am their strength"; "I am their wisdom"; "I am their righteousness"; "I am their peace"; "I am their salvation"; "I am their all in all." This apparently unfinished name, therefore, is a most comforting name because it allows us to add to it, without any limitation, whatever we feel the need of, and even "exceeding abundantly" beyond all that we can ask or think. The psalmist says that those who know God's name will put their trust in Him, and it is, I am convinced, impossible for anyone really to know Him and not to trust Him. A trustworthy person commands trust; not in the sense of ordering people to trust him, but by irresistibly winning their trust by his trustworthiness. What our Lord declares is eternally true: "I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me." When once you know Him, Christ is absolutely irresistible. You can no more help trusting Him than you can help breathing. And could the whole world but know Him as He is, the whole world, sinners and all, would fall at His feet in adoring worship. They simply could not help it. His surpassing loveliness would carry all before it. Over and over we are assured that God and Christ are one. Nothing is more emphatically stated in the New Testament than this fact, that we are to behold the "light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." It is evident, therefore, that we must never accept any conception of God that is contrary to what we see in Christ. If we have been accustomed to approach God with any mistrust of the kindness of His feelings toward us; if unworthy thoughts of His character and will have filled our hearts with suspicions of His goodness; if, in short, we have imagined Him in any way other than that which has been revealed to us in "the face of Jesus Christ," we must go back in all simplicity of heart to the records of that lovely life, and must bring our conceptions of God into perfect accord with the character and ways of Him who declares that He came to manifest the name of God to men. Whatever characteristics then we see in Christ, these are the filling out of the "I am" of God. As we look at the life of Christ and listen to His words, we can hear God saying, "I am rest for the weary; I am peace for the storm-tossed; I am strength for the strengthless; I am wisdom for the foolish; I am righteousness for the sinful; I am all that the neediest soul on earth can want; I am exceeding abundantly, beyond all you can ask or think, of blessing, and help, and care." If we will take our stand on this one fact, that Christ and God are one, and will refuse definitely and unwaveringly to cherish any thought of God that is at variance with what Christ has revealed, life will be transformed for us!
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