Names

 

By CLM assistant Meridith

For to us a child is born,

To us a son is given,

And the government will be on his shoulders.

And he will be called

Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,

Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

-Isaiah 9:6

I’m guessing that if I asked you to think about how you identify yourself, you’d start with your name. You might tell me what you do for a living or other important facts about yourself, but I’m almost certain you’d start by giving me your name.

Maybe you like your name, or maybe you’ve chosen a nickname. Perhaps you’ve gone through the process of changing your first or last name. For better or worse, our names are who we are. Our name is what people call us, how they identify us.

But there are also other labels that get stuck to us: pretty, ugly, smart, dumb, rich, poor, single, married, mom, dad, and on and on. And those names become part of who we are, something we can’t always shake. It’s likely that some are true and some are not, and were words slung at us to harm instead of heal.

One of my favorite phrases is “but God”. People may say one thing about you, you may say one thing about yourself, but God has other things to say about you and me:

“I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well”.

-Psalm 139:14

“God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure”. 

-Ephesians 1:5

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and see, the new has come!"

-2 Corinthians 5:17

The world had a lot to say about Jesus, too. The prophet Isaiah had a few names for the coming Messiah: Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Which do you need most this Christmas?

This weekend, as we celebrate the birth of Jesus, rest in the power of His names. Let the world’s labels fall away and remember what your heavenly father has to say about you.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.”

-John 3:16