“As El Shaddai, or ‘the almighty God’ the deity is seen to be not only creator and sustainer of the universe, but also the initiator and keeper of covenants. As such He is seen to move clearly in the human sphere shaping natural forces to spiritual ends.” “God, Names Of,” H. B. Kuhn, The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1975, 1976), II, p. 763.

Jacob referred to God in this manner when he prayed. He was in such a state that it maybe he only wished it.

“May Almighty God cause the man to have pity on you, so that he will give Benjamin and your other brother back to you. As for me, if I must lose my children, I must lose them.” – Genesis 43:14 GNT

What gets me the most was the fatalistic attitude he expresses regarding his children. It gets me because it reflects me. I have so much of this in my life that I fail to even recognize it sometimes. Lately I have been in a few interviews and have expressed this to the point the interviewer has commented (not positively) on my fatalism.

I wonder if Job was in the same boat too.

Though I am innocent, all I can do
    is beg for mercy from God my judge.
Yet even then, if he lets me speak,
    I can’t believe he would listen to me. m- Job 9:15-16 GNT

He knows he has sin, but it is spiritual integrity that he is talking about – a pure heart to love, serve and obey God. But he has this understanding that if he prayed and asked God to help him, okay. But would he have the right to do this? God’s will is God’s will, right? He knows everything anyway, right? What is my desire anyway to Him? I am so far beneath Him it is all but a dream or fancy, nothing real. At the end of the conversation, if he had one with God, it would be revealed to have been the will of God all along. So the prayer would have been mute for the will of God would still be carried out. I mean, He is the Almighty.

So how do I look at Jacob’s prayer differently as he looks at the Egyptian rulers he is sending his children to? Paul takes some time to talk about our need to keep leaders in prayer. For those who think this might be ridiculous, I trust we are being careful to not being pharisaical towards them. At the end of the day we want all to know Him.

Everyone must obey state authorities, because no authority exists without God’s permission, and the existing authorities have been put there by God. – Romans 13:1 GNT

Because God is almighty, and He cares, we should find healthy ways to pursue justice and hold people accountable for their actions. God is a just God as well as a loving God. My prayer will sound something more like lifting our leaders to the Lord and to give them wisdom, to softened their hearts, and to show them what justice truly is.

“As an instinct, prayer is a response to our innate
but fragmentary knowledge of God. It is like a
note in a bottle to “whatever gods there be.”
As a gift of the Spirit, however, prayer becomes
the continuation of a conversation God has
started. If that conversation proceeds, as in the
best conversations, praying becomes meeting
with God — heaven in the ordinary.” – Timothy Keller