Weekly Devotion "Think on Your Name"

From Lenae, GEMS Training Manager

THINK ON YOUR NAME

To everyone who is victorious I will give some of the manna that has been hidden away in heaven. And I will give to each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one understands except the one who receives it.

Revelation 2:17, NLT

In Bible times, names were especially important. If something did not have a name, it’s as if it didn’t exist. Egyptian documents describe the time before creation as “when no name of anything had yet been named” (Nahum M. Sarna). Within Scripture, a person’s name was closely connected to his or her reputation or identity. When God changed someone’s name, for example from “Saul” to “Paul” or “Jacob” to “Israel” it demonstrated a new direction God had given to that person’s life.

When an angel of the LORD appeared to Gideon and said, “The LORD is with you, mighty warrior” (Judges 6:12) Gideon must’ve wondered if he had heard correctly. Gideon was from the weakest clan of Israel and was least in his family. When God gave Gideon the assignment to tear down his father’s alter to Baal and cut down the Asherah pole beside it, he did it at night because he was afraid of his family and the men in the town (Judges 6:25-27).

Gideon is mighty? A mighty mouse maybe, but a mighty man? I just don’t see it. Obviously Gideon didn’t initially see it either as he pointed out his weaknesses to God, asked for signs, and worked at night in fear rather in daylight with boldness. God called Gideon by name, “Mighty Warrior,” and then told him to go forth “in the strength you have” (Judges 6:14). Gideon walked by faith, not sight, and is listed with the other hall of faith famers in Hebrews 11.

Jesus gave Peter his new name and said he was the rock on whom He would build His church (Matthew 16:17). Did Peter question his name and inwardly scoff at the thought of being a rock? At this point in his life the only rock-like quality he had displayed was sinking like a rock while walking on the Sea of Galilee (Matthew 14:30). Peter also walked by faith, not sight, and “was the first great voice of the gospel during and after Pentecost” (NIV Study Bible).

God has given you and me a new name, too. Our identity should rest in Christ alone. We are His children (1 John 3:1), saints (Ephesians 1:1), redeemed and forgiven (Ephesians 1:6-8), a member of a royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9), a partaker of a heavenly calling (Hebrews 3:1), and so much more. Do you believe it? Do you believe it not by what you see, but by what you know to be true by faith?

Think on it: Think on a name that God has given to you that you struggle to see in your life. Use that name often today in the soul talk that runs through your mind.

Jesus is smiling at the very mention of your name in heaven.

Bob Goff