What’s In a Name?

What’s In a Name?

We tend to call people names based on what they do. If someone is sneaking as a child, some people call them “Slick”. If someone is big, we might call them “Tiny” (go figure). If someone drinks, we call them the alchoholic…overweight…heavyset.

Benjamin Floyd Coleman Jr. / Benjamin Floyd Coleman II – When I was getting ready to graduate high school, they gave us forms to submit how we wanted our names to appear on our diplomas. Me (and my wise self) decided to “spice up” my name. Instead of using ‘ Jr.’, it seemed more appealing to use ‘II’. I remembered all the royalty that were none as the ‘II’, and thought I would do the same. What I did not think about, was how my parents would feel about it. Needless to say, they were surprised to see it. So….what’s the big deal? What I did not consider was the effort my parents had put into naming me. I did not fully appreciate it until I was about to have my first son. It was then that I realized that a name is very important. The bible says that we can have what we say, so when we say a name, we are speaking over a child’s ENTIRE life. Wow. Here are a few examples.

Jabez – Most of us have heard the prayer of Jabez…”enlarge my territories…” Many do not know that Jabez mother birthed him in turmoil. His name means born in pain. We do not know the whole story, but it implies that his mother went through a lot to birth him.

Abram/Abraham – One meaning of Abram is “to run”, which fits Abram’s early life. This is a guy that lied and said his wife was his sister…talk about running from the truth! But, as God’s plan for his life began to unfold, God changed his name to Abraham…father of many nations.

Hadassah /Esther – I just heard a great preacher say that Esther had to have a new name to match, not her past, but where God was taking her. Hadassah was her Hebrew name, but to be queen of Persia she had to be Esther. I could spend a lot of time there…I will say that he also said that “a moment of favor is worth more than a lifetime of labor”.

Saul/Paul – Please take a second to read my blog on Paul (http://bencolemanjr.blogspot.com/2009/02/was-paul-ocd.html) . The main thing I want to bring out here is that Paul real was not as much transformed, as much as his energy was redirected. As Saul, he was obsessed with killing Christians….as Paul, he was obsessed with birthing Christians.

Jesus called me friend – In John 15, Jesus is giving final words to his disciples. He makes a very profound statement…that they are no longer His servants, but His friends. He says that a servant is on a “need to know” basis, but a friend knows what a friend is doing.

So what’s in a name? Destiny. I’m not telling you to run downtown and fill out a name change form. I am saying that God has a name for you, that speaks to where He is about to take you. It doesn’t matter what people call you…their name for you is probably based on your past. My God has a name for you that speaks to your future. That’s the one I’m going by!