God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.  This is what you are to say
to the Israelites: ‘I AM has sent me to you.'”  Exodus 3:14

I AM!  Out of all the names and characteristics of God we discover in the Bible, this one seems to always take center stage, the foundational theme of who God is. 

I think I have always liked this account of God stating His own name because it is both simple and profound.  If you really think about it, how could have God answered the questions of Moses, “Who are you?  What is your name?”  If you could somehow imagine yourself as God, how would you answer those questions?  

We have a tendency to “prove ourselves” . . . to use every means possible to show why we are an authority and ought to be listened to.  We pull out our heritage, showing we are of the “right” family and background.  God could have done that.  He actually refers to that a couple of verses later as he gives instruction to remind the people that He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  That wasn’t the critical part of who He is, but a connecting point for the Israelites that this God, I AM, is the same God who had been with them in prior generations.

We would have a tendency to pull out our “pedigree” . . . our list of accomplishments, degrees, and awards designed to prove why we ought to be listened to.  God could have used His list to have Moses say to the Israelites, “I am your creator God.  I am your provider God.  I am your shelter God.  I am your comfort God.  Even, I am your deliverer God.”  All just a fraction of the names He had been given and has gone by.  The list of titles and qualifications would have been quite impressive.  God’s point wasn’t to impress with words — His own or words spoken about Him.  His point was to impress with Himself, with who He really is . . . I AM!

God still wants us to know Him as the “I AM” in our life.  Not the “I was”, or “I could have been”, or even the “I will be”, but as the I AM.  I Am states a presence, an existence, a state of being that is complete and stands on its own.  I AM WHO I AM implies an inherent trust, a faith that does not require all the details and credentials but a belief that this is true.

When you and I found, or find, ourselves in bondage, in slavery to our thoughts, actions, habits, and sins in our life, we don’t need a lengthy dissertation on God’s qualifications to deliver us.  We need to trust a confident and capable God who says, “I AM” has come to set you free.

Will you allow the God who was, and is, and always will be — the I AM — to deliver you from everything that would hold you in bondage?