Words, names and labels are often taken lightly by people, and the results can be destructive. Too many people have been hurt, offended and even inwardly destroyed by occasions where they were called insulting things and had their names misused, but God promises that in Jesus' name, we can be restored from the hurt of having our names misappropriated. Through His acceptance, we are given new identities.
Sometimes in the Bible, God changed the names of the people He called. He changed Abram's name to Abraham, Simon's name to Peter and Saul's name to Paul. There is power in the names - the labels - that you declare upon yourself and power behind the names and labels that people place upon you.
A groundbreaking study by Betty Hart and Todd Risley called "The Early Catastrophe" found that there is power behind the words that we speak to children between birth to the age of four. The study showed that the more we speak encouraging things to a child at an early age, the fewer the problems they will have with identity and purpose later in life.
There is power behind words and moreover the labels that we attach to ourselves.
Proverbs 18:21 tells us that "Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits." Maybe you've received a barrage of terrible discouragements in your life and have been called hurtful things. Maybe you've been called stupid, unwanted, useless or burdensome, perhaps your name was ridiculed or distorted by people who thought it was funny to do so.
But know that God has not taken your name in vain, and declares value over you and your name, so much so that you are engraved on His hands (see Isaiah 49:16).
All of this is made possible because of the most powerful name of them all, the name of Jesus, which God has given us the liberty to speak over ourselves in any time of need. God assigned the power of salvation to the name of Jesus and He wants you to know today that He has declared over you an identity that is determined by the power of Christ.
1 John 3:1 says "See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him."
We are called, named and labelled sons and daughters of God. We are called a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God (1 Peter 2:9).
Because of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross, God has given you a completely new identity. It doesn't matter what you've done before, doesn't matter how qualified or unqualified you are here today, God has declared that you are now sons and daughters. He has given you a new last name and called you His children.
