You have a name.
And this may be the most powerful truth of all time: God knows your name. He knows your situation, your past, your present. He knows how many hairs are on or are not on your head & He loves you exactly as you are. In fact, there’s absolutely nothing you could ever do to make God love you less. He loves you perfectly. He knows you entirely. He cares for you deeply. And your name is written on His hand. He won’t forget you. Abandon you. Leave you or neglect you. He holds your name in His hands. This is the hope we have.
What name do you live out of?
Many people I know live out of an identity they have assumed. And the identities they live out of come from the names they have assumed. These names come from different places. From family. From friends. From culture. Inevitably they all come from the same source. From the Enemy. The names they wear literally reflect the life they live.
So people wear names like…
Failure, Frustrated, Alone, Tired, Weak , Lost, Outcast, Lonely, Misfit, Judged, Unintelligent, Unneeded, Unnecessary, Expendable, Limited, Coward, Unnoticed, Annoying, Proud, Afraid, Worried, Anxious, Failure, Depressed, Perpetual Sinner, Aways Does the Wrong Thing, Unloved.
Just think about it. If your name reflected the life you lived, what would your name be? What identity are you living out of right now?
More often than not, people are living out of these kinds of identities. Some of them are not overtly sinful, but they lack all confidence & trust in Yahweh.
We live out our lives from the identities we’ve assumed.
This, I believe, is one of Satan’s most sly tricks. This is one of his most creative ways in doing harm to the children of God. If he can get you to live out of a false identity, out of a set of lies he perpetuates, then he’s already won the battle before the fight has even begun!
3 Reasons Why We Wear the Wrong Names:
1. We believe in God, but we fail to believe God.
The fact that you’re reading this demonstrates to me that you on some level believe in God. But for whatever reason, there are many who believe in God but who don’t believe God. You don’t believe what He’s said is true. You have doubts about His presence, His care & concern for you, His ability &/or desire to act on your behalf. So while you believe in God, or at least the idea of God, you have doubts. You fail to believe God. You fail to believe what He said is true. And don’t get me wrong. Doubts are ok. To be a disciple of Jesus at least on some levels means you have doubts about Jesus. See his first disciples as evidence! But at some point you & I have to come to grips with what we believe. And if we believe what we say we believe, it changes everything.
2. We spend more time in the world than in the Word.
I’ve heard it said that you are who you are with. Jim Rohn says, “You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with.” If those things are true, & I think they are, then we need to be choosy about who we spend the most time with. And one of those people we should choose to spend time with, 1 of those 5, needs to be Jesus. We draw our identity from those whom we’re around. And the way we spend time with Jesus, at least one way, is by being in the Word. John says the Word became flesh & dwelled among us. Jesus is the Word. If we want to spend time with Jesus we have to spend time in the Word. That’s why I truly believe that if you want to be a follower of Jesus of Nazareth, you have to spend time in the Red Letters every day!
3. We have failed each other as a community of faith.
We need each other. Part of belonging to a community of faith is allowing people into our lives who can help form us & shape us into the image of Messiah Jesus. And I’m as guilty of this as anyone. How many of us have regret over belonging to a group that should have encouraged each other & made each other stronger… then when one person in that group had a major struggle & a problem develop in their life, we hated the fact that we had not gone deeper with each other sooner? We need to love each other enough to allow people to speak boldly into our lives, ask the difficult questions & have permission to challenge us knowing that they have our best interest in mind as they seek to help us become more like Messiah Jesus.
Here’s the good news.
Yahweh can change your name. On occasion throughout scripture Yahweh would give someone a new name. Every time Yahweh does this the person is imperfect, unqualified & at least on one occasion you could argue that it was a bit scandalous. But Yahweh chooses them anyway & gives them a new name. A new identity.
Yahweh wants to change your name too. And when Yahweh changes your name you get a new identity, a new purpose & a new direction in life.
[Tweet “When Yahweh changes your name you get a new identity, purpose & direction in life.”]You have a new name, a new identity & a new direction in Christ.
Your name tells a story. And the story you tell reflects the name you carry.
MESSAGE: Carry Your Name: Your Name
TEXT: Genesis 17.1-6; Isaiah 62.2b, 4, 5b; Isaiah 49.16
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