What’s in a name?'

When people label you, those labels can cause you to shrink instead of to stretch to your full potential. But the God who gave Jacob a new identity can give you one too. Are you struggling with the old names people called you and the old images you have of yourself? Nothing will change in your life until it first changes in your mind.

    Jacob's wife Rachel died in the desert in childbirth. Just before she died she named her son Ben-Oni, which means 'son of my sorrow'. When the midwife handed him to his father Jacob, he said, 'He shall not be called Ben-Oni, the son of my sorrow; he shall be called Benjamin, the son of the right hand' - the son of power (Genesis 35:18). Guess which name prevailed? Benjamin!

    Hear this: you are who God says you are, not who others say you are! If God didn't give you the name, it's not yours. Only believe what God says about you. Nobody understood better than Jacob the power of a name change. It was in God's presence that Jacob the trickster was renamed Israel, '...a prince... with God...' (Genesis 32:28).

    Jesus Christ can break the power of every negative thing that attaches itself to you. When you receive God’s forgiveness and become a Christian, you can say 'I’m a saint, not a sinner; not a loser but a winner.' Then, when people try to label you, you can tell them you don't answer to that name any more. You can tell them the person they're talking about died, was buried, and rose brand new in Christ. The Bible says “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” (1 Corinthians 5:17)

Adapted from The Word for Today - www.ucb.co.uk