A Good Name
In prayer and reflection this morning, the Lord spoke to me out of Zephaniah 3:20 which says, “On that day I will gather you together and bring you home again. I will give you a good name, a name of distinction, among all the nations of the earth, as I restore your fortunes before their very eyes. I, the LORD, have spoken!”
We are imperfect people in an imperfect world. As the days run their courses and the weeks turn to months and years, we compile our list of dings, dents, bruises, brokenness, and failure. If any of these phrases speak about you, then this is for you:
I should have done that differently.
How did I get so off course?
I wish I wouldn’t have said that.
I wish I wouldn’t have done that.
How am I ever going to make things right again?
How could God ever use me again?
The enemy is a specialist in 3 major categories…stealing, killing, and destroying (see John 10:10). He comes at us in a barrage of ways, at a variety of times, and the thing that is certain is that he is coming. Maybe it was blatant, but most often it is subtle. It starts with a poor decision here and an untimely error there. As life continues, he begins to rack up a trophy case of our best awards including but not limited to: “Liar of the Year”, “Pornographic Adulterer”, “Best Gossip”, “Rage Warrior”, “Destroyed Family”, and a host of others. I’m sure you get the picture.
What the enemy is after is to tarnish our names, our family, our legacy. His goal is to limit the weight our name carries. His goal is to get people thinking about all the tragic things associated to your shortcomings so that when you speak, people can’t hear what you’re saying and only see what you did. He wants people to associate you as the scarlet letter.
Proverbs 22:1 says, “A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold…”
When the enemy gets other people focused on our failures, and us focused on our disappointments, he will begin to have a field day in our minds and emotions. This will lead to catastrophic results and be demonstrated by us walking in the same cycle of shame that the people of Israel walked in for 40 years after their freedom from slavery. Our own name will begin to feel devalued in our own eyes.
There has never been a more chronicled and public hour of history than right now. With the gadgets, devices, social media channels, and phones, our lives are on display. And while there are benefits, the danger and certainty of public failure are all but a certainty. No matter what you say, post, or do, it will be judged by someone who disagrees in a more public dynamic than anyone has ever faced before. The case can be made, that a name carries more far-reaching weight than it ever has before. The enemy’s goal is to damage your name to silence your voice.
The fact that we are all at fault, all with sin, all with failure, and all with shortcomings is not a surprise. And yet, because of our pasts, many of us have never taken a step forward into the destiny that God has written out before you were ever born (Psalm 139:16). The enemy has so intertwined our thoughts with his, that we can’t see the words written from God about us.
As the Lord began to minister to me this morning out of Zephaniah 3:20, I felt a fire rise up within me, to remind the body of Christ that while there is breath in your lungs to STAND UP and STEP FORWARD into the glorious future God has designed for you. Because of the blood that Jesus shed on the cross and because of our glorious salvation in Christ Jesus, we have been redeemed, renewed, restored, and reconciled! I have news for you today from heaven:
You are not a failure.
You are not sentenced as the product of your blunders.
You are a child of God and a co-heir with Christ.
You have been made new.
You are redeemed.
You may have made dozens of tragic mistakes, but you are not those things now. You may have a name with your family, boss, church, friends, or society that was a certain way in the past. But today, it changes.
The Lord began to minister to me to remind you that He loves you. He is giving you a name of distinction. He is restoring a good name to you. He has associated your name to His name and His goodness in your life. He is getting the glory of the redemption of what God can do with a man. He is restoring the voice you feel you lost. He is doing this not because of you but because of Him! Your name is the product and demonstration of His glory at work in your life!
He is restoring your fortunes, not for your pockets, but as a demonstration of His generosity to you so that He can flow through you freely. You are not your past. He is your present and is leading you into your glorious future.