ALEX PENDUCK.COM

I remember watching the movie, Bruce Almighty for the first time. Some were offended by that movie, I thought it was hilarious! In the movie Bruce meets God, Bruce receives the power of God, then Bruce gets mad at God. There is a line in that movie that I never forget. Bruce is mad with God and shouts out, “smite me, Oh mighty smiter!”

In Genesis 17:1 God communicates with Abram. God starts the conversation by saying, “I am El-Shaddai”.

The word El-Shaddai basically means God Almighty. So often when we think of the Almighty God we have a view like Bruce Almighty and think God is just an angry “Smiter”. However, the bible tells us something very different.

God calls himself El-Shaddai seven times in the Old Testament. In each of these occasions he never once says, “I am God Almighty, the great smiter”. No, every single time He introduces himself as El-Shaddai then follows it by making a promise of blessing, provision and abundance.

For Abram he promised that his family would eternally be blessed and all the world would be blessed because of them. In other accounts God promises to be more than sufficient for His people, to be a support to His people and to be the One who will take care of His people.

As you pray today know that you are praying to God Almighty. The One who has the world in the palm of His hand. The one who is all sufficient, the one who protects and the one who desires to bless you and all those close to you.

Don’t pray like Bruce Almighty did with an obsecure concept of God, but pray under the assurance that El-Shaddai has got your back and has a desire to bless you with abundance. 

If you are struggling under the weight of life, try to communicate with God Almighty, he promises to be your sustainer!

Have you ever had to call customer service because of a problem you had with a product and found that the person you are speaking with just cannot help you?

If so, then you have probably asked this question, “Can you please put me through to someone who can help me?”. Eventually when they put you through to their supervisor or another department the first question you probably have asked is, “What is your name?” following by, “What is your role of authority?”.

There is something within us that wants to know who we are talking to and if they can help us. When we pray it is no different.

What use is it to pray to someone or something in which we do not know who it is we are praying to?

Moses gives us an example of a question everyone who prays should ask of God. We see in Exodus 3 that Moses who is employed by his father in law as a shepherd sees a bush in the distance that is burning. This is not unusual in a hot desert. However, Moses notices that the bush is not being consumed by the fire. Moses is intrigued and goes to take a closer look. To cut the story short Moses discovered that it was God using this burning bush to communicate with Moses.

Through this story we see that Moses isn’t caught up in the hype of an incredible magic trick, Moses wants to know who is the voice behind the bush, so he asks one simple question, “Who are you?”

I believe many people find prayer and communication with God so difficult because they fail to ask this one question, “Who are you?”.

The result is they either pray weak and faithless prayers or they are disappointed when their answer to prayer doesn’t work out like they thought.

Moses discovered that day that the voice behind the bush was the same voice that spoke to his forefather Abraham. It was the voice of a God who had felt the pain and suffering of the people of Israel and it was the voice of the person who would send him and be with him through life’s toughest situations.

Without this question, Moses would have never been the man he has gone down in history as because he would have never known who this God actually was and how much he could trust him with his life.

As you pray today, I encourage you to pray one prayer:

“God, who are you?” Ask him to reveal himself to you and when you know who he is, then communication becomes a whole lot easier and prayer becomes so much more enjoyable and productive than ever before!

This week we start a brand new sermon series at Generation Church called, “Hey There…God”.

Have you ever struggled to pray? Do you find it hard to make time to communicate with God? Does it feel like sometimes you are just talking to yourself?

Then this series is for you. To be honest I do not know one person who finds prayer easy. Whether you are at the beginning of your faith journey or a veteran who has prayed everyday for the past 50 years, there are challenges you will face.

One of the biggest challenges is discovering who you are praying to! I believe some have never been able to communicate with God on a constant basis because they just plainly do not know who God really is. When you don’t regularly communicate with God you lose touch with God. When you lose touch with God life becomes very dark, overwhelming and un-fulfilling.

Starting on February 19th 2012 we will post for the next 28 days as we discover just who God really is. This isn’t about gaining a knowledge of God or creating a theological argument about God. This is about connecting with the one truth God and discovering what that means for you.

I believe after these 28 days those days of struggling to prayer will be a distant memory as you find a deep and an increased faith of who the God is that you are praying to.