Wednesday in the Word

"Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine. 

 

Isaiah 43:1b

 

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This last weekend was the First Annual Women of Victory Women's Retreat at my new church. Our theme was He Knows My Name and Isaiah 43:1b was our scripture. I have to be honest, when we first left our old church and moved to the new one I had every intention of sitting in the back row and resting for a while. I'd been very involved in the women's ministry at my old church and felt like I just needed some time to sit. And be. But, as is usually the case with God, He had another plan. And that plan was for me to coordinate the women's retreat.

 

When I first got to Victory Christian Life Center (the new church), I met a sweet young woman, Tiffany. She has a heart for God and a heart for women. We knew God wanted us to work as a team and He allowed us to form a special friendship. Over the course of time, our little retreat (we have a small church) became a reality and before we knew it we were headed to the mountaintop to meet with Him along with 15 of our sisters in Christ.

 

Our guest speaker, Deanna, was amazing. She put together her message based on our theme, He Knows My Name. She created work sheets for us to use in break-out sessions. She talked about our names...what they mean...what they mean to us. She made us bookmarks with our names on them and on the back she wrote down its meaning. She also talked about our names in Christ. Who we are in Him...and how it's His name we take when we accept Him as Savior. Not only did we learn what our names do mean, God also showed us throughout the weekend what our names do NOT mean.

 

My name is not: fear, depression, anxiety, worthless, mistake...you fill in the blank.

 

My name is Michelle. And this is what it means in Hebrew, "Close to God. Feminine form of Michael: Who is like God? Gift from God."

 

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What is your name? And what is it not? I want to encourage you to make a list. Go to this site and find the meaning of your name. Type in your name in the Search for faster results as the site is quite extensive. Find out what your name means...and write it down. Pray and think about what that means to you.

Then...write down what your name is not. What name, what "label" do you live under? What do you deal with? Eating disorders? That is not your name. Alcoholic? That is not your name. Addict? That is not your name. Abused? That is not your name. Victim? Fear? Low self-esteem? Depression? Anxiety? Bi-polar? Manic? No. None of them are your name. Why is it we grab a hold of these labels, these "names", as if they are truth? They are not truth. The truth is you are a child of God...fearfully and wonderfully made. He knit you together in your mother's womb. Your name is "perfect in His eyes".

God is calling us by name...we are His. Don't you think it's time to start living like it?