Welcome back to “Praying the Names of Jesus.” If you missed the explanation for the name of
Jesus we’re studying this week, click here or scroll down to Monday’s entry.
Have you ever thought about how surprising God is? Wouldn’t it be completely natural if Scripture were to cast him as some kind of superman, as a new and improved version of a human being? But Scripture isn’t natural. It is a supernatural disclosure of God and his plans for us, one that would not have occurred to us in a million years. Who could have imagined God on a cross, who is a King and Servant, a Lion and a Lamb, a God whose justice is trumped by his mercy? Aren’t you glad that God’s ways are not your ways and that his thoughts are as far above yours as the heavens are above the earth? Today, as you meditate on the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, let him expand your notion of who he is and how he thinks about you. Begin by thanking him for calling you out of the anguish and exile of sin into his loving and merciful protection.
Promises in Scripture

I will not carry out my fierce anger,
nor will I turn and devastate Ephraim again.
For I am God, and not a human being –
the Holy One among you,
I will not come against their cities.
They will follow the Lord;
he will roar like a lion.
When he roars,
his children will come trembling from the west.
They will come trembling
like birds from Egypt,
like doves from Assyria.
I will settle them in their homes,”
declares the Lord. (Hosea 11:9-11)
A king’s rage is like the roar of a lion,
but his favor is like dew on the grass. (Proverbs 19:12)
The wicked man flees though no one pursues,
but the righteous are as bold as a lion. (Proverbs 28:1)

–Ann Spangler
Adapted from “Praying the Names of Jesus” by Ann Spangler, with permission. Each day for five weeks, learn to better understand the nature and character of Jesus through his many names. Did you miss any entries? Stay subscribed to this feed and you’ll receive the entries you missed once the feed restarts.