How being called by name changes who I am

Isaiah 43:1 I HAVE CALLED YOU BY NAME; YOU ARE MINE Take a moment: Consider the question who are you? How would you introduce yourself? No consider the question: Who do other's say I am, the world, friends, family? To the first question many of you will answer: I am a wife/mother, sister, daughter. I am a good student, a successful __________ To the second question you may stop; struggle, consider and reconsider if you should even put into words the things that come to your mind. What if someone sees what you write down, what if writing them down makes them true? Should you even put down those secret thoughts that come to your mind? Those labels you have picked up over the years of life? After all some of them are so ugly, so negative - you are ashamed they even come to mind. After all your a Christian and you hate yourself for even being defined by them at all. Maybe some of them would be; your ugly, your worthless, you will never measure up, you will never be enough, you aren't good enough, you can't do _____, your too big, your too small, too young or too old. But maybe in the midst of those there are the good things too: your a peacemaker, your humble and gentle or patient. But even so they all seek to distract us from one identity - the one identity that matters most. The one identity that was given to us before the world began and we were just a thought in the mind of an amazing and creative God. So let's take a look at what God says about us; you and me...... Isaiah 43:1 says "Fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by name; You are mine. It is not a mistake you are here. You were created by loving God for a specific purpose, for this time and this place. But somewhere along the road of life we begin to pick up labels and names that misdirect our destiny as a chosen race and royal priesthood (1 Peter 2:9)....we seem to forget exactly who we are. We forget our names so to speak, we doubt our purpose. We forget our identity as children of God, a holy nation, a people of his possession (1 Peter 2:9). We seem to lose our way...we love the Lord yet we doubt the identity He has given us. We long for acceptance yet deep down in the part us no sees we doubt we are loveable. We accept His grace yet sometimes in the secret places of our hearts we doubt we should receive it or that it will really cover everything that is so wrong with us - that we are even really redeemable. And so the identity crisis looms large..... We begin to accept the labels as truth and we replace the TRUTH of God with these "truths" of the world. We resign ourselves to be and become less than we are created for. In Isaiah 41:1 we read that God has redeemed us and called us by name and claimed us for Himself. Stop a moment.....close your eyes....think back to being a small girl. Remember how you would dream of Prince Charming? He would fight for your honour, he would defend you at all cost. He would scale the highest walls to the tallest towers and descend to the deepest darkest dungeons. He would chop through the deepest forests, battle the fiercest dragons, fight the largest enemies, slay the mightiest monsters to claim you....the Princess. But....you grow up and the world is no place for fairy tales. There is no Prince Charming to go to battle for you. There is no room for Prince Charmings that don't ever really satisfy that longing deep inside yourself. You even doubt you are worth a Prince Charming at all - would one ever really come for you? So you resign yourself. But I am here to tell you that there is a greater love story going on - and YOU are at its very center - you are the central character - YOU are the princess who is pursued. It is a love story that spans from the beginning of time... Isaiah says He redeemed YOU! This means he fought the dragons, the giants. He slayed the Lions of the world. He scaled the highest towers and descended into the deepest dungeons. He faced the meanest enemies, fought the fiercest battles and he redeemed YOU. You are His and according to Jeremiah 31:3 he has loved you with an everlasting love - one that has no beginning and no end. A love that can not be quenched with time, does not grow weary along the journey, is not afraid of loss and celebrates joys. You are loved with an everlasting love!! Not only that but in Solomon 4:7 we hear his voice echo through the ages and whisper in your ear "you are altogether beautiful, absolutely flawless".....ahhhh....words of love...the words of The ONE who adores you, looks upon you withe pleasure, would lay down His life for yours to redeem you and take you as His. But there's more - in Zephaniah He states that He takes delight in you, and in John 15:15 we learn that He calls you a friend - not just a number, not a face in the crowd, a nameless person in the grocery store, not just a mother, a wife, a woman in the midst of life. No He calls you a friend, by name - He desires a personal relationship! This God - this Creator of the Universe, This Lion of Judah, This Prince of Peace, This Saviour, Messiah, King of Kings - HE chose YOU! He chose you and engraved your name upon the palm of his hand (Isaiah 49:16), you are not forgotten - ever. You are ever before His eyes, precious to him. But....somewhere along the way we forget. We lose sight, we somehow determine within ourselves that this greatest love which He bestows upon us is not for us, that somehow we don't deserve it, we don't measure up, we can't accept it. It is true we don't deserve it, we can't ever do enough to. We can't ever do enough to earn it. But we deserve it by the mere fact that we were created by Him for the very purpose of receiving it. What difference does this truth make? It makes this difference: It means that when you are in the trenches of motherhood, walking the halls at night, soothing babies, changing diapers, fighting with a teen, praying over your wayward child - you are not alone. When the enemy tells you that you are an epic failure you can look back to HIM and hear what he says about you and who He says you are. You can step aside and allow HIM to destroy the lions of this world one lie at a time. It means when you hear that voice that says you are too old or too young for something that you can have the confidence in the fact that in Jeremiah He says "you will go where I send you, say what I tell you to say and not be afraid because I am with you..." It means when once again you have that sinking feeling that you are not good enough, you'll never measure up, that you just can't do it, that your a disappointment to your parent, your children, your husband, or your friends that you can look to Him. You can be reminded that in Him you are good enough. You are enough because He is in you and He has called you by name. He has spoken your name in the tenderest of love and drawn you to Him. He will fight for you because He has loved you with an everlasting love. It means you can have confidence that He not only call you by name, He created you for a purpose. According to Ephesians 2:10 you were created by His handiwork - that means He took time to create you, He thought about you, created you carefully and with love. He was involved and cherished His creation. He created you for a purpose. He created you for good works that only you can do. You are the Esther created for just a time as this, for the purpose at hand, for where He has placed you - to do something only you can do. And Sisters, if he prepared you, created you for this purpose and time He will equip you and He will help you. Take a moment today to ask God what He really says about who you are. Reflect on your answers to the first two questions. Allow God to speak to you - allow the Prince to destroy the lions in your life, to dispel the lies and to set you free. And once you remember who you are: Stand strong, stand firm, stand in confidence in the identity you have in Christ. Walk in the confidence that you are His - and you are loved with an everlasting love.