Did you know God has a name?

Most of us have many friends. One thing we can all likely agree on is that part of building a relationship with our friends is learning their name. Outside of our names we all have titles, either Mister or Misses, maybe Doctor, Officer, Administrator, Mom, Dad, Son, Daughter or something else. When it comes to our close friends we usually do not use their titles when we are talking to them, instead we refer to them by name. Using their name is more intimate and shows the deeper appreciation we have for them.

It makes sense that if we want to become friends with God that we should learn his name. Today, many people do not know God has a name. God wanted us to know and use his name, it is in the original Hebrew scriptures of the Bible almost 7,000 times! Sadly, in most modern translations this name has been changed to the title “LORD”, effectively removing Gods name from the Bible. Thankfully, most translations do preserve his name in a few key areas. One such place where God’s name is often preserved is in Psalm 83:18:

And there it is, God’s name is Jehovah. This of course is the English translation of his name. In Hebrew it is spelled יהוה‎ and is pronounced “Yahweh” and together these four letters are known as the tetragrammaton. Our opening image is of the Hebrew spelling of God’s name. Now that we know God has a name, doesn’t it make sense to use it instead of the title “LORD” or “God” when we are talking to him? In an effort to get to know the creator of everything, the one who gave us this gift of life, and the one who knows best how we can get a full measure out of this life, we can use his personal name when talking to him! Many people of high rank insist you call them by their title, but the loving creator gives us his name, and invites us to talk to him personally!

If you think you might be interested in learning more please contact me at encourage.wc@gmail.com or visit www.jw.org and type “Does God have a name” in the search bar at the top of the screen; then scroll down to videos and watch the short video titled “Does God have a name”. I hope this his been as enlightening for you as it was for me when I first learned the creator of the universe has a name.