El Shaddai

**El Shaddai= God Almighty, The God Who Is Sufficient**

Spent today steeped in the Word, lovers-

I felt like sharing.

Somewhere in the middle of last week, I started a new tradition of outlining my favorite verses and writing them on a sheet of paper stuck on the front of my binder, so that I can look at them all in one place, at the same time, to ease the process of memorization and meditation upon God's Word.

The page is already full, and I'm going to have to come up with a new place to put them all, which shouldn't be too hard because I just discovered several blank writing pages in my ESV Study Bible, and I think I'll transcribe them all there. Plenty of room, in the perfect place, and close to my heart always.

So.

Up until this point I've never really been able to say I have favorite Bible verses.  I never really spent much time reading my Bible.  Good thing I decided to come here, let me assure you.

But now that I have found these beautiful words, and not just beautiful by religious standards, but beautiful because of the way they strike me individually, through devotional time or through classtime, I desperately want to share them with other people.

And I want other people to share their favorite verses with me.

The Bible is quite expansive, if you haven't noticed- 66 books is quite a hefty library to carry around all the time- and I do not in any way claim to have come even close to reading the whole thing.

But!  Sharing favorite scriptures is a great way to excite yourself and excite others about searching for new truths from God's word, and to motivate yourself to read even more than you've ever read before, because it drives you with the desire to find more gems, but you want to find them in your own way, in your own personal walk with God.

Good things.

Anyways.  Enough blabbering. Here are some of the most impactful words from the Bible that I've come across so far.

"For God alone, O my soul, wait in silence

For my hope is from Him.
He only is my rock and my salvation.
My fortress: I shall not be shaken.
On God rests my salvation and my glory;
My mighty rock, my refuge is God."

-Psalm 62:5-7

"And Mary said:
My soul magnifies the Lord
And my spirit rejoices in God my savior,
For He has looked on the humble estate of His servant.
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
For He who is mighty has done great things for me,
And holy is His name.
And His mercy is for those who fear Him from generation to generation.
He has shown strength with His arm; 

He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts;
He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate;
He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty.
He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy,

As He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and his offspring forever."

-Luke 1:46-55

"A person cannot receive even one thing unless it is given him from Heaven."

-John 3:27

"If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all."

-Isaiah 7:9

"But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls."

-Hebrews 10:39

"Do not be anxious beforehand what you are to say, but say whatever is given you in that hour, for it is not you who speak, but the Holy Spirit." 

-Mark 13:11

"We love because He first loved us." 

-1st John 4:19

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life."

-Proverbs 13:12

"Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows;

yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was pierced for our transgressions;

he was crushed for our iniquities, upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace.
And with his wounds we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray; 

We have turned-every one- to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all."

-Isaiah 53:4-6

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ- by grace you have been saved."

-Ephesians 2:4-5

"For we walk by faith, not by sight."

-2nd Corinthians 5:7

"Keep my teaching as the apple of your eye;

bind them on your fingers;

write them on the tablet of your heart."

-Proverbs 7:2-3

"And my God will supply every need of yours according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus."

-Philippians 4:2-3

"For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control."

-2nd Timothy 1:7

"For our sake He made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God."

-2nd Corinthians 5:21

"Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness.  For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.  And He who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints according to the will of God."

-Romans 8:26-27

"For you are all children of light, of the day.  We are not of the night or of darkness."

-1st Thessalonians 5:5

"God is not a god of confusion, but of peace."

-1st Corinthians 14:33

"I have been crucified with Christ.  It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."

-Galatians 3:20

"I appeal to you therefore, brothers... Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect."

-Romans 12:2

"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.  If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing."

-1st Corinthians 13:1-2

And perhaps, finally, my most favorite book in all of the Bible is found in John 21:12:

"Jesus said to them, 'Come and have breakfast.'"  <3 <3 <3

Goodnight, lovers-

Godspeed.  <3