by Shannon Tillman | Apr 16, 2026 | Blog, Theology, Thoughts
As soon as I saw the name of the road, I knew I could never live in a house on that street. The street’s name was the same one from a painful relationship in the past. As soon as I saw the name, floods of negative memories filled my mind. Just the name was enough to ruin my day. While that name conjured up bad emotions, there are other names I hear that bring a smile. The name is attached to a person, to a relationship, to a trust that never wavered. A name can remind us of faithful friendships or unfaithful choices. There is power in the memories associated with a name.
Psalm 9:10
Those who know your name trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.
The words convicted me as I read them, for I realized that I fail to believe these words. There are areas in my life where I do not fully trust the Lord, but there are other areas where my confidence seems complete. Where my trust breaks down is the evidence of a lack of knowing a certain name or aspect of the Lord.
The names of God reveal His attributes. The Lord is too massive to be described in only one way. Thus, the many names revealed in the Word of God show us His character. Some of the names are more familiar than others: Lord, Provider, Comforter, Shepherd, Creator, and so much more. He is the perfection of every good attribute, mighty and tender, holy and merciful, set apart and near. He is truly wonderful.
And yet, I doubt. There are times I struggle. The lack of faith points to what I do not know about God. For example, I wrestle with His timing in answering prayer. Why not today? Why the delay? My questions point to the part of God I do not trust: El Elyon, the Most High God. He is above time, above the situations, above my opinions. He is orchestrating events around the world, surely He can see and handle my problems. But I hurt. And I do not know if He will ever answer, if He cares, if He sees me. I do not know, really know by experience, El Elyon.
I do know Him, however, as Jehovah Jireh, the Providing God. I have seen Him work financial miracles in my life. I trust Him, I know His name, I stand firm in what has been revealed, what I have experienced. I have sought Him, as the Psalmist wrote, and the Lord did not forsake me.
Today, I recommend a heart evaluation. Where do you trust God, where have you experienced Him, where do you know His Name? Celebrate that relationship you have with the divine. Consider as well the areas of struggle and doubt. What name of God have you not yet experienced? Press in there, just as I did this week. I know we will learn His Name in that area as well. He will not forsake us. We can trust Him. We can know His Name. When we hear His Name, we will smile as one who knows.
by Shannon Tillman | Apr 9, 2026 | Bible Study, Blog, Thoughts
I remember the teacher handed me back my high school science report. My grade was low. I saw that he wrote something on the top page about “referencing a project that I did not have.” I was thoroughly confused. My project had been turned in as well. I approached my teacher after class. I took him to my project that was placed under the table with some of the other students’ experiments. He apologized; he had completely missed it. The next day I received a corrected paper with my grade, the highest of all the students. That meant I could go to the county science fair (which seemed thrilling at the time). But my hopes were dashed because the teacher said, “I know the highest grade goes. However, Jana had the highest grade before I realized that I had missed your project under the table. She is so excited. I don’t want to take that from her. I’m sorry.” Sorry? What about me? I worked hard and now I cannot advance to the next level of science because the teacher was more sensitive to Jana’s feelings than mine?
I was devastated. However, I never told anyone in order to protect Jana and her journey. I remember I prayed and I felt that God let me know that Jana needed this and I did not. It was something for her. Maybe she ended up pursuing a science degree. I do not know; all I know is that something that was bad for me was good for her. God alone knows the reason why.
The same concept is true in a story about a captured slave girl who ministered out of her difficult situation to the very man who enslaved her.
2 Kings 5:1
Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram. He was a valiant soldier, but he had leprosy.
Aram was an enemy nation of Israel. Naaman was the commander of this nation. His military success against Israel led to not only some people being killed but others being forced into slavery, never seeing their homeland again. One of these captured slaves was a young girl.
2 Kings 5:2
Now bands of raiders from Aram had gone out and had taken captive a young girl from Israel, and she served Naaman’s wife.
This girl could have chosen to resent her new masters. She could have mocked Naaman’s disease and thought it was a sign of judgment from God. She could have kept silent and not shared what she knew would help him. Instead, she chose to be kind, even to her enemy, and shared a source of healing for him.
2 Kings 5:3
She said to her mistress, “If only my master would see the prophet who is in Samaria! He would cure him of his leprosy.”
This young girl had faith. She believed for a healing of leprosy! She wanted her enemy to be delivered from his suffering. This girl would not have known about Naaman’s leprosy except for the fact that she had been taken captive and brought to serve his wife in their home. Her bad situation was setting up for his good. Upon hearing the news of a potential healing, Naaman chose to go see the prophet, Elisha. Naaman eventually obeyed the command of Elisha to dip in the Jordan river.
2 Kings 5:14
So he went down and dipped himself in the Jordan seven times, as the man of God had told him, and his flesh was restored and became clean like that of a young boy.
Naaman was healed, his skin fully restored. More importantly, his physical healing led to a greater spiritually awakening.
2 Kings 5:15a, 17b
Then Naaman and all his attendants went back to the man of God. He stood before him and said, “Now I know that there is no God in all the world except in Israel. ..please let me, your servant, be given as much earth as a pair of mules can carry, for your servant will never again make burnt offerings and sacrifices to any other god but the Lord.
Naaman, a pagan worshipper, became a follower of the one true God. The misfortune, the pain of a young servant girl was being orchestrated into a story to bring an Aram commander to salvation. Her bad situation would lead to Naaman’s good.
Sometimes, the difficulties we face are what brings others to the Lord. I used a silly example about the science project, but there have been other more painful circumstances that have been used for the transformation of others. Often in teaching, I give first hand accounts of difficulties I experienced in order to encourage others in their journey. That is working our pain for the good of others. The young girl’s temporary bondage led to Naaman’s eternal deliverance. Whatever hardship we are in, God will take it and bring eternal good out of it. We can trust Him even when it does not make sense. Sometimes we may not know the outcome, but we can trust that God will work it for good.
Romans 8:28
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Only God knows how many people’s lives have been touched by Naaman’s story over the past 3000 years. His story only became eternal when one young girl’s misery became a ministry, even to her enemies. Our bad will be turned to good and the lives of others will be changed.
by Shannon Tillman | Mar 26, 2026 | Bible Study, Blog, Thoughts
She was a master manipulator. Others regarded her as sweet and charming, but there was venom hidden underneath. Unfortunately, I was already entangled in friendship and in ministry when I began to notice the red flags. It was too late. The ministry I dreamed of ended up being harmed by her treachery. I had to shut the doors on what I believed I had been called to do.
In the midst of the pain, I questioned the Lord. Through the healing process I learned that the Lord had allowed an enemy to teach me. I ignored warning signs and proceeded ahead, causing devastation that could have easily been avoided. Now I have learned the difficult lesson which will protect myself and others in future ministry and life endeavors.
The Lord allows the enemy to win in the short term to teach His children a lesson for life.
2 Kings 5:1
Now Naaman was commander of the army of the king of Aram. He was a great man in the sight of his master and highly regarded, because through him the Lord had given victory to Aram.
The nation of Aram was an enemy of Israel. Naaman, Aram’s commander, was in charge of military raids against the Hebrew people. There were citizens killed, others taken as slaves, people robbed, and families torn apart. Yet, it was the Lord who was giving victory to Aram over His people of Israel. God allowed the enemy to win! Why? Because of the idolatry in the land.
2 Kings 3:1-3
Joram son of Ahab became king of Israel in Samaria in the eighteenth year of Jehoshaphat king of Judah, and he reigned twelve years. He did evil in the eyes of the Lord, but not as his father and mother had done. He got rid of the sacred stone of Baal that his father had made. Nevertheless he clung to the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, which he had caused Israel to commit; he did not turn away from them.
Joram was king of Israel at this time. His father was Ahab, meaning his mother was Jezebel. They are regarded as the most wicked king and queen in Israel’s history. Joram took after his parents, just not as evil, but still evil. This caused the nation to continue in idolatry. Thus, Aram was allowed to have victory battles over Israel. There was a divine purpose behind the pain. The intention was to sound an alarm to the hearts of the people, to draw them away from their idols, to repent before God, and seek His help. The Lord’s allowance of the enemy’s victory was to lead the nation back to God.
The Lord uses this strategy in our lives as well. God allows us to see the futility of our ways in order for us to learn to choose His ways. He will allow us to experience consequences in order to help us to want to repent. He will allow failures in order to teach us better choices. The Lord does all of this out of His love for us.
Hebrews 12:5-6
And have you completely forgotten this word of encouragement that addresses you as a father addresses his son? It says,“My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son.”
The Lord is our Father. His discipline, even allowing the enemy to temporarily win, is to teach us, to grow us, to change us. His discipline proves His love toward us.
Hebrews 12:7-8, 11
Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as his children. For what children are not disciplined by their father? If you are not disciplined—and everyone undergoes discipline—then you are not legitimate, not true sons and daughters at all… No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
True sons and daughters, what discipline are you experiencing right now? Do not shun it! Instead, learn what your Father is teaching you. Are there idols you are turning to instead of Him? Lay the idols down. Are there repeat patterns that keep surfacing? Acknowledge the sin and repent. Out of love, the Father allows these circumstances to help you release what is not good and to embrace Him alone. God allows the enemy short-term wins in order for His children to have long-term, life-changing results. That is the Father’s love toward us.
by Shannon Tillman | Mar 19, 2026 | Bible Study, Blog, Thoughts
The list for prayer given to the prayer team has a multitude of requests for the physical body. From small ailments to surgeries to disease, there are precious petitions for healing. However, I have yet to see a prayer request to cure chronic sin although there is a verse in Scripture which shows the need for this type of healing as well.
Jeremiah 3:22a
“Return, faithless people; I will cure you of backsliding.”
Another Bible version states the verse in this manner:
“Return, O faithless sons, I will heal your faithlessness.”
The Lord is speaking to the nation of Israel. He wants to cure them of backsliding into sin, to heal them from their unfaithfulness. In essence, God does not just want the sin removed from our lives; He wants the root of the sin to be dealt with so that we are not prone to fall for the temptation again. How are we healed of faithlessness, of backsliding? A process of healing takes place when we deal with the reason why we choose the sin over God’s ways. The sin is the evidence pointing to a deep soul wound which chooses to salve itself temporarily with the false comfort of sin. The sin cycle keeps us from transformation and wholeness.
My heart’s cry is: Oh, God, heal me! I am faithless in my mind, wasting time replaying conversations or rewriting conversations in the way I wish they would have gone. I am faithless in avoiding difficult situations by going on my phone instead of choosing to pray. I am faithless in my frustration with God, wondering why my family’s lives are a mess and He has not intervened. I am faithless in carrying out the dreams in my heart because I live in crisis mode instead of a state of planning and preparing.
These are where I am faithless right now. I am sure more will be revealed in time. My list was even longer in the past as I had to work through pain from childhood. I can look at this list and still see trauma’s fingerprints on it. I so desire to please others that I want to say the right thing because I never felt like I pleased my family growing up. I go on my phone now, but as a child I would zone into a book pretending that I did not hear the argument taking place in another room. My frustration with God stems from years of unanswered prayers, causing me to believe the lie that I am forgotten or abandoned. I live in crisis mode because that is how I grew up and even though I hate it, sometimes it feels more comfortable.
Why am I sharing this? Because I want you to put in your area of unfaithfulness, your place of backsliding. Ask the Lord to show you why this is your area of struggle, the place of failure. The Lord knows the “why” behind your actions. Ask Him to heal the wound! God knows the misguided reasons we choose to sin. He understands. However, He does not excuse our behavior but gives us the promise for transformation.
The Lord promises to heal us of unfaithfulness. What a wonderful promise! God will heal us. All we have to do is come to Him.
Jeremiah 3:22b
“Behold, we come to You; For You are the LORD our God.”
How are we healed? First, we must acknowledge the area of backsliding. Next, we have to look to God instead of our sin. Then, we come to God. That means we no longer pretend the sin is not there, or no longer excuse our behavior, or no longer say it is “not that bad”. We do not have to try to clean ourselves up before coming. Instead, we come in the middle of the mess we are in. We look for God and recognize that He alone can help us change.
The Lord can transform us as His names in this verse reveal. We come to the LORD, Yahweh or Yehovah, which is the covenant name of God. In other words, we come to the One who we are in relationship with, the One who loves us. The Lord is God, which in Hebrew is “Elohim”, meaning the supreme God. We are coming to the One who is over our lives, the One in charge. He directs us into new paths, new responses, new ways of living. His names show His power and ability to save us from our unfaithfulness. With His love and power, He leads us into new life as He heals our backsliding. All we have to do is come.
Yes, Lord, heal us of our backsliding! This is our prayer request, one that You desire to readily answer in all of our lives.
by Shannon Tillman | Mar 12, 2026 | Bible Study, Blog, Thoughts
A broken promise is heartbreaking. However, when freedom and slavery were involved, a broken promise turned into criminal acts. In the book of Jeremiah, God addressed the leaders of Israel for they had made a covenant to release those in forced labor but then decided to enslave them once again.
Jeremiah 34:8-11
The word came to Jeremiah from the Lord after King Zedekiah had made a covenant with all the people in Jerusalem to proclaim freedom for the slaves. Everyone was to free their Hebrew slaves, both male and female; no one was to hold a fellow Hebrew in bondage. So all the officials and people who entered into this covenant agreed that they would free their male and female slaves and no longer hold them in bondage. They agreed, and set them free. But afterward they changed their minds and took back the slaves they had freed and enslaved them again.
Imagine being set free only to be recaptured by the one who promised you freedom. Picture the heartache of starting a new life only to be forced back into labor. Feel the emotions of looking at those who are supposed to enforce justice but instead seeing them as willing participants of injustice. Not only had they made a covenant to the people for freedom, they had made a vow before God which they broke.
Jeremiah 34:12-16
Then the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: I made a covenant with your ancestors when I brought them out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. I said, ‘Every seventh year each of you must free any fellow Hebrews who have sold themselves to you. After they have served you six years, you must let them go free. Your ancestors, however, did not listen to me or pay attention to me. Recently you repented and did what is right in my sight: Each of you proclaimed freedom to your own people. You even made a covenant before me in the house that bears my Name. But now you have turned around and profaned my name; each of you has taken back the male and female slaves you had set free to go where they wished. You have forced them to become your slaves again.
The Lord had told the people hundreds of years before that indentured servants were required to serve no more than seven years. However, the people decided to enforce life-long labor despite the directive given by God. In other words, cultural opinions ruled. They did what they wanted instead of doing what was right. Although it seemed they had finally chosen to obey the Lord, it was only for a short time. They chose convenience for themselves over freedom for others. With unlawful force, the people enslaved the free, breaking their promise before God and man. Therefore, God declared punishment against these covenant breakers.
Jeremiah 34:18
Those who have violated my covenant and have not fulfilled the terms of the covenant they made before me, I will treat like the calf they cut in two and then walked between its pieces.
In those days, a covenant was symbolized by an animal cut in two. The ones who agreed with the covenant would walk through the pieces. It was in essence communicating that if the person broke the covenant, then he would be subject to severe punishment, even death. God decided to allow the penalties of violating the covenant to fall on those who had made the promise but broke it.
Jeremiah 34:19-20
The leaders of Judah and Jerusalem, the court officials, the priests and all the people of the land who walked between the pieces of the calf, I will deliver into the hands of their enemies who want to kill them. Their dead bodies will become food for the birds and the wild animals.
The people who were part of this covenant were leaders, court officials, and even priests! The leaders who were to guide others in righteous acts were leading them instead into deliberate crime. Court officials who were supposed to uphold the rules of the land were breaking the law. The priests who were called to obey God’s ways were rebelling against His commands.
Before we condemn the past and excuse ourselves because we do not own slaves, we need to evaluate the motives behind what we do. For example, some ministers hold people to personal bondage-wanting the congregants to fulfill the pastor’s plan, pastor’s agenda, pastor’s calendar. There is no release of the people to God’s plan, God’s agenda, God’s calendar. Or we see church leaders wanting to control decisions, wanting their way instead of God’s way. There are even unethical practices by church officials, wanting what is beneficial for their personal finances instead of choosing what is right.The unethical practices harm the home. The children of the leaders, officials, and priests witnessed their parents going back on their promise, backsliding into former ways, excusing their behavior with lofty words but shallow meaning. Think about how the priests would minister at the temple for the Jewish people while holding Jewish people in personal bondage. How confusing to watch parents do the right thing at work but walk in compromise at home! Part of the bondage may be that we are training up the next generation in unethical ways, keeping a course that dishonors God and people for years to come.
The message is clear not just to church leaders, but to everyone in the body of Christ. If in any way we are using people or their resources for our own advantage, we are keeping people in bondage. This is the exact opposite of our calling for the church is commissioned to set people free.
In grand terms, we are to be on the front lines fighting literal slavery. Human trafficking earns more money than any other industry in the world. We cannot ignore slavery. This is our watch in history and our fight to be won or lost.
On a micro-scale, we must ensure that we do what is right in the Lord’s eyes, which means we must be diligent in not compromising with culture. Motives need to be checked in all decisions to ensure that we are following God’s leading not our own agendas or opinions. We need to lead others not control them. We also must honor God with money and not create loopholes that benefit our pockets. When we walk in freedom, others will be led to freedom as well.
It is time for us to repent of any way that we are not honoring God in our treatment of others. Whether on a large or small scale, we are accountable before God to obey His decrees. Anything less than that is breaking covenant with the Lord and His command to us:
John 13:34-35
“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
Love fulfills the covenant with God and man. A lack of love violates His decree. May we choose love in all relationships, in all decisions, in all circumstances, in all financial matters. If and when we fall short, let us repent and then return to the command of love which sets us and others free.
