Your Life has a Name
By Lachlan Perrin
Apart from all the prams, cots, toys and other equipment new parents must acquire, surely the most difficult decision to make during pregnancy is, ‘what do we call him (or her)?’ A name is so finite and cannot be retracted. In desperation, expectant parents may tire from baby name research, admit defeat and ask, ‘How on earth can we decide!?’
Well, fortunately the Bible tells us that children are a ‘gift from the Lord’ and are named and known by Him before their birth, not just when they are ‘on earth’. Psa 127:3. Our name is much more than the title on our birth certificate, or the word that is called out when our coffee is ready at a cafe! It was written in the ‘book of life’ before the ‘foundation of the world’. Eph 1:4. The Lord is continually calling us ‘by name.’ In fact, in Peter’s first remarkable encounter with Jesus, He said ‘You are Simon the son of John; you shall be called Peter’. John 1:42.
Imagine meeting someone for the first time and their very first statement was to change your name! The prophet Isaiah wrote, ‘The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory, and you will be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord will designate’. Isa 62:2. When we turn to the Lord seeking restoration for our soul, He calls out to us. But unless we are listening for His voice, we won’t recognise our name when He calls. Many people spend their entire lives trying to ‘make a name for themselves’, fearing they won’t be remembered or recognised for their accomplishments. But this will almost certainly guarantee that God won’t remember us. In the book of Genesis, mankind learnt an important lesson. ‘They said, “Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name”.’ Gen 11:4. It was easier for them to build a high tower than to pray. This would be like building a bridge across the Tasman Sea to speak with people in New Zealand, instead of picking up the phone!
Jesus foretold the end of those who pursued a different ‘name’ to the one He had given them. He said, ‘Many will say to Me on that day, “Lord, Lord” and then I will declare to them, “I never knew you; depart from Me you who practice lawlessness”.’ Matt 7:22,23. Unless we live according to the name which He has given us, and not according to the name that we try to make for ourselves, He is not our Lord at all. In fact, He will not recognise or remember us, despite our best efforts to know Him. In contrast, all those who live in a submitted relationship with Him will receive strength and grace. And when this world passes away and we appear before God to give account, these words of Jesus will be our hope, ‘To him who overcomes … I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows but he who receives it’. Rev 2:17.
Heaven is like the final roll call of life, and mercifully, all our names are recorded on that roll. How we live our life here and now, whether it is according to the name He has given or the name we seek for ourselves, determines whether or not we will continue to be ‘registered’ there. For those whose names do remain in Zion, the psalmist declares that their resounding testimony and song will be, ‘All my springs of joy are in You’. Psa 87:7.
