“…you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow.”
“They will be called the Holy People, the Redeemed of the Lord; and you will be called Sought After, the City No Longer Deserted.”
When we were young the phrase, “Sticks and stone will break my bones but your names will never hurt me.” was the comeback line for anyone who called us names. It was supposed to re-enforce us that the names we were being called could not hurt like being whacked with a stick. In some ways it was right, I would never like to be whacked with a stick versus being called a name. The whacking hurts and the words, well, they are just words, right? Wrong!
Some of the most damaging ways to permanently hurt someone is by our words. Verbal abuse and name calling can get deep inside us and ultimately define the way we think. “I will never be good at anything”, or “I am so ugly” or “I am not smart enough.” All these phrases come out of our mouths when we let the bad words sink deep into our minds. The end result is out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Luke 6:45), your heart is coated in negative goo and that is what you are being defined by.
The Bible says you will be called by a new name, a name only God can bestow on you. If you watch The Chosen, in the first episode, Jesus finds Mary, called Lilith by her sinner friends, running away from Jesus and you hear Jesus call out to her by using her real name, “Mary!” She stops, turns around, Jesus touches her life, and she will never be the same.
What you are called means something. It is not just empty words but rather they can give life or take it away. In the book of Proverbs, Solomon writes that life and death are the power of the tongue (Prov. 18:21). That means we ought to use it wisely. The Lord calls you a Holy People, Redeemed, Sought After, a City No Longer Deserted. You are more than conqueror through Jesus. (Rom 8:37) You are the head and not tail above and not beneath (Duet 28:13). You are the Son or Daughter of the God of the Universe and He has a plan for your life. You are not deserted, you are grafted into the vine of God being used by Him to spread the good news of the gospel (John 15:2). He picked you and said, “come to me and you will find rest.” (Matt 11:28)
Every day we should remind ourselves of what God calls us and not what the world calls us. Personalize the verses above, they are speaking about you!
Prayer: Lord, we thank you for giving us a new name when you died on that cross and rose from the grave. We are no longer called by our sin, shame, and guilt. We are forgiven, chosen, and forever loved by Jesus. We take captive every negative thought that we think about ourselves and instead put on our God-confidence today. In Jesus name, amen.
Let It Go 
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