| NamesWhat does your name mean? Have you ever thought about what names are… I hadn’t done very much with this until today. Check out some amazing things that God’s shown me lately.
So, over Easter break I got this new book and absolutely love it. It's called "What Happens When Women Walk in Faith: Trusting God Takes you to Amazing Places" While it's written for women, a lot of the stuff it talks about can apply to anyone. The past day or two it's been talking about leaving the past behind and going on in life to honor God. One part today was talking about names.
We see many times throughout the bible that God puts an emphasis on names and even changes some peoples names for them such as Abram and Sarai to Abraham and Sarah ....
Gen 17:5, 15 "No longer will you be called Abram (which means exalted father); your name will be Abraham (means father of many), for I have made you a father of many nations." "As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; for her name will be Sarah."
He also decides some peoples' names for them such as his son Jesus.
Luke 1:31-32 "You will be with child and give birth to a son, you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High."
Matthew 1:21,25 "She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins..... And he gave him the name Jesus."
God puts a big emphasis on names... he cares about the little details.
Check out these verses:
Psalm 147:4 "He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name."
If the names of each of the stars matters to God... don't you think about he cares even more about you and your name?!?!?
Isaiah 62:2 "The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory; you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow."
In Christ we can have a "new name" too.
Revelation 3:12 "Him who overcomes I will make a pillar in the temple of my God. Never again will he leave it. I will write on him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God."
Names revealed character. Christ's new name symbolizes all that he is by virtue of his redemption for mankind.
Revelation 3:5 “He who overcomes will, like them, be dressed in white. I will never blot out his name from the book of life, but will acknowledge his name before my Father and his angels.”
You know how people sometimes write things on their hands to remember them? Well if you’re one of those people, don’t feel bad… God does it too… he tells us in Isaiah 49:16 that he has engraved us on the palm of his hands. We are important… our names… our NEW names in Christ are important.
After talking about some of these things, the book suggested looking up the meaning of your name. I hadn’t done much with my name but this all got me curious. At first I was a little disappointed at what my name means…
The first thing I found said “a snare” that’s not a word we use very often but some synonyms I found include “trap” “noose” “capture” etc. still not very exciting. As I looked more I found that a literal translation for Rebekah is “tied up” or “bound.” This still didn’t sound exciting but, then something hit me.
Story time… in high school at one point, one of my friends was putting my name, Rebekah Freed, in a newspaper article or something. Anyway, somehow the thesaurus changed “Freed” to “not tied-up.” So after that, many times my nickname became Rebekah Not Tied-Up. So
When I saw that Rebekah means “tied-up” I couldn’t help but think of my whole name together… Bound Set Free. Doesn’t this show the whole meaning of a name that we’ve been talking about… God gives us a NEW name in Christ. When I first came into this world, I was bound, tied up, trapped, ensnared in my sin. BUT through Christ’s death and resurrection… I’m FREED!
Wow! Pretty amazing. But it gets even better.
The book also suggested trying to take the meaning from your name and finding a bible verse that correlates with the meaning. After much searching I came across this verse that talks about both sides of things… being bound and being set free…
Isaiah 61:1 He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners.
While this was originally for Isaiah, maybe this is God’s call for me too.
Just out of curiosity I looked up my middle name Ruth as well.
Ruth – friend, companion, compassion, to rue, to feel sorrow or pity for.
I couldn’t believe how much this all fits together. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but once again, God never ceases to amazing me.
So now I challenge you… find out what your name means… how has God called you by His Son’s new name? Maybe you’ll find out a little more about what God has planned for your life.
Isaiah 43:1 But now, this is what the LORD says— he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
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