Let God Be the One Who Names You

I have been leading a Bible study through the book of Genesis for a while now and what keeps surprising me is the importance of names.  So many names in the Bible are prophetic!  Take Abraham’s name, for example.  He was first named Abram, which means “exalted father”.  And he kept that name for 86 years before he ever had a child! Then God renamed him Abraham, which means “father of a multitude” when he was 99 years old and had yet to have the child God promised him with his wife, Sarah.  Just about every major character you read about in the Bible has a name that is meaningful.  Ishmael means “God hears,” and was a reminder to Hagar in the wilderness that God was both listening to her and seeing her in her dark hours.  Isaac means “he laughed,” in reference to Abraham and Sarah laughing at the thought of having a son at an ancient age.  Jacob, which means “trickster,” got changed to Israel, which means “man who wrestles with God” – and he did.  All these names were given by God, and all are meaningful. 

Our names are an integral part of our identity.

Names are always meaningful, no matter who gives them to us.  Research has shown that we tend to judge people by their names.  People who have names that are considered attractive tend to get more dates, get hired more easily, experience more success, and attract more friends.  Of course, there are many other things that come into play.  But isn’t it interesting that our name alone can create a first impression?  Not to mention how frightening the human need to judge people about absolutely everything is!  Our names are an integral part of our identity.  We want to make a “good name” for ourselves.  We are careful about what nicknames we will allow.  Names can be a very emotional topic.  We can even tend to name children based on our experiences with people in the past.  There are certain names I would never have given children because of bad experiences I had with people who happened to have that name.  There are names I resonate with because they bring back warm memories of love and friendship.  Some families even pass on a heritage by using the same name generation after generation. That is pretty powerful stuff!

The act of naming the animals was a demonstration of the authority Adam had over them.

An interesting aspect of naming things becomes clear early on in the Bible.  If we look at Genesis 2:19, we see God giving Adam an unusual job: “Now the Lord God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky.  He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name.”  Isn’t it delightful that God would allow His human creation to name the animals?  I can imagine how much fun that would have been to watch each animal parade by and have total freedom on what to call them.  But there was a deeper meaning here.  Genesis 1:28 tells us that God had a plan for how men and animals would relate: “God blessed them and said to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it.  Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’”  God intended man to have dominion over all the animals – He commanded it.  The act of naming the animals was a demonstration of the authority Adam had over them.  It is also interesting that Adam did not get to pick his own name – God chose that. 

When God gives someone a name, we need to stand up and pay attention.

Naming things or people does not automatically mean that you have dominion over them, but throughout history, people have recognized that the power to name things is the power to have authority and control to some extent.  Everyone from the ancient Greeks, Jewish cultures, and Islamic traditions to the practitioners of witchcraft have carried this belief.   One thing that is clear in the Bible is that when God gives someone a name, we need to stand up and pay attention.  He didn’t do it very often, and when He did it was powerful!  The people God named or renamed were the ones He singled out for a chosen purpose and a divine destiny above and beyond the normal person.  It is like a “who’s who” list:  Adam, Abraham, Sarah, Ishmael, Isaac, Israel, Isaiah’s son, Gomer’s children, John the Baptist, Peter, Paul, and most importantly, Jesus.  Some name changes recognized a new heart, like Simon to Peter, or Saul to Paul.  Some were messages to the wicked and unrepentant nation of Israel, like the children of Isaiah and Gomer.  Some were messages of hope, like Abraham, John, and Jesus.   Even Lucifer got a name change to Satan, but for the worst of reasons – rebelling and falling from heaven. Every one of them is important.  God would not have recorded the name changes if they weren’t.

The words others speak over you are the labels they want you to become to them.

That made me stop and wonder.  If names are so important and so meaningful, what do I let people name about me to give them power over me?  Even if they call me “Janis” by name, sometimes they try to speak other things over me to change who I am.  Just like Jesus called Simon His rock – a very good and steady thing to be – people call me all sorts of things.  Sometimes I have been called smart or talented.  Or even better, kind and empathetic.  Sometimes I have been called not good enough, inferior, or even weird.  Sometimes I hear the same name over and over again from different sources: less than.  And don’t be mistaken – the words others speak over you are the labels they want you to become to them, whether for good or for evil.  And labels are just what I have been talking about – names.  What I am beginning to learn is that I have too often accepted these names.  I have believed them and adjusted who I was meant to be in order to fit the label.  And I did it to feel safe.  I accepted the labels so that I could be accepted by the people.  Sadly, accepting the labels has given the person who said them power over me and taken some degree of control away from God. 

I am learning the names that God always intended for me to carry.

How about you?  As you look back through your life, have you accepted labels from other people and turned them into the characteristics that define you?  Have you let go of some God-given part of you to please or keep someone in your life, even if their name for you hurts you?   Are you defined more by what others have spoken over you than by what God says you are?  I can honestly say that for much of my life I could yes to each of those questions.  We all do it.  We all carry voices from the past that try to tell us who we are and who we aren’t.  I can also honestly say that I am learning the names that God always intended for me to carry.  Names like “chosen”, “forgiven”, “protected”, “blessed”, “wonderfully made”, and “beloved”. 

God promises us a new name – one that He gives us – not only in this life, but forever.

Sure – God has never appeared to me in a dream or spoken aloud to me from heaven, saying, “From now on your name will be Janiah,” or anything like that.  But the words of the Bible – God’s Words – cry out to me beautiful new names.  If you want to find some of the names God cries out to you, I suggest starting with the book of Ephesians.  Or read Psalm 139.  Just as God found Saul on the road to Damascus and changed him from his life as a Pharisee into Paul, a super-apostle, follower and proclaimer of Jesus, God wants that for you, too.  You don’t have to be on the “who’s who” list to claim your new name, either.  God promises a new name to all those who follow Him.  Isaiah 56:5 says to those that bind themselves to the Lord and follow His commandments, “to them I will give within my temple and its walls a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that will endure forever.”  Revelation 3:12 says it like this: “He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will not go out from it anymore, and I will write on him the name of My God, and the name of the city of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from My God and My new name.”  God promises us a new name – one that He gives us – not only in this life, but forever.

Jesus is the name that will redeem and restore you to the destiny God intended.

So it comes down to this.  Who do you want to have the authority over you?  Do you want it to be the broken people of this world, even the ones that are well-meaning?  Or do you want it to be the God who created you and has known you and seen you from the beginning?  Do you want to live under the labels that others have given you, or do you want to live the life God wanted for you?  Let God be the one who names and claims you for His own.  Don’t be afraid of the labels from others that echo in your head.  Name them, bring them to light, and deliberately offer them up to God in prayer.  Then pray for God to show you who He intended you to be.  If you struggle with letting go, talk to a trusted friend, family member, pastor, or counsellor.  Do whatever you need to do to step out of the ungodly authority others have claimed.  And in your work to do that, let me remind you of one more name – the name of Jesus.  There is power in the name of Jesus.  He demonstrated it throughout His earthly ministry – power to heal, to cast out demons, to forgive, and to save.  Call on the power of that name.  It is the most important one.  It is the one that truly has authority and dominion.  It is the name to which all knees will one day bow (Philippians 2:10-11).  It is the name that will redeem and restore you to the destiny God intended.

I hope today’s message touched your heart, increased your understanding, and encouraged you.  Praying the peace and comfort of Christ Jesus on your life.