What's Your Name?

My husband and I have some friends with a two year-old son who we are absolutely smitten with! His name is Zach. If his parents would let us, I think we would claim him as our own. Recently we took Zach out on the town for a night so his parents could have a date night. The three of us had dinner, played at the park, and went for ice cream. We had a great time! One thing this two year-old has recently learned is how to say his full name. If you know how two year-olds work, then you know that they like to repeat new words and phrases over and over and over again. Throughout the night he kept letting us know that his name was "Zachary David Hoober." When I would comment to him that he was a "big boy!" He would promptly correct me and say, "I'm not a big boy, I'm Zachary David Hoober!" Whenever he met a stranger over the course of the night that would ask him his name, he wouldn't even let them finish asking the question before he blurted out, "I'm Zachary David Hoober!" At one point in the night my husband and I were commenting to Zach that he would soon be three years-old when, you guessed it, he quickly let us know that he wasn't almost three, he was "Zachary David Hoober!"

We laugh at that story, but I think it's safe to say that we could all learn a thing or two from Zach. He knew what his name was and he wasn't about to let you call him anything different! But isn't that what we do? We let other people rename us. We listen to the accusations of the devil tell us who we are. We let the situations of life determine what we will be called. Ugly. Dumb. Ashamed. Insecure. Defeated. Unworthy. Useless. Loser. The list could go on and on. It may be mistakes that we've made in the past, or situations we've had to live through, but we believe the lies of the devil in our head telling us this is who we are and all we will ever amount to.

But I want to let you in on a little secret. John 10:10 says the devil is out to steal from us, kill us, and if that's not enough, he wants to absolutely destroy us. So why do we let him tell us what should be called? Over and over again we let him beat us up and slap labels on us that we eventually believe. In John 8:44 he is called the father of lies. So why do we listen to him and believe him again and again? I think it's because we don't really know what our full name is. For those of us in Christ Jesus, we have a new name and now is the time to learn it.

Your name is New Creation. (1 Cor. 5:17)
Your name is Friend of the God of the universe. (John 15:15)
Your name is Chosen. (Ephesians 1:3-8)
Your name is Child of God. (Ephesians 1:3-8)
Your name is Not Condemned (Romans 8:1)
Your name is Forgiven. (Col. 1:13-14)
Your name is Temple of God. (1 Cor. 3:16)
Your name is More than a Conqueror. (Romans 8:31-39)

That is your name! That is who God says you are. The devil has no right to fill in that blank on your name tag unless you let him. Now is the time to learn your true identity in Christ. It's time to stand up to the devil and let him know what your real name is!

Oh the lessons we can learn from an innocent two year-old! Like Zach, we shouldn't even let Satan get through his accusation before we're blurting out, "No I'm not, I'm Forgiven!" We shouldn't be content with someone calling us what we used to be before we're letting them know, "I'm not that anymore, I'm a New Creation!" When we know our full name we have the ability to approach the overwhelming situations of life that make us feel defeated with the exclamation that we are More than a Conqueror!

So let's practice. What's your name?