Wednesday 5 March 2014

I Will Change Your Name...

This past weekend a song that has been playing through my mind has been, "I Will Change Your Name."  A beautiful song written by DJ Butler.  It's not a long song filled with many words but a song of limited words filled with a powerful message.  A message that so many need to hear.

I will change your name
I will change your name

I will change your name
You shall no longer be called
Wounded, outcast, lonely or afraid

I will change your name
Your new name shall be
Confidence, joyfulness, overcoming one
Faithfulness, friend of God
One who seeks my face

We all go through moments of despair, moments when we feel worthless, when we feel filled with shame...a shame that can be so consuming that it hinders us from living fully.  Shame can imprison our hearts and keep us from the very ones who love us deeply and from the very ONE who can set us free from that shame.


This morning as I was doing my chores down the hill, feeding the horses and cleaning up after them I was thinking of my own moments of shame...deep shame.  A shame so deep, that it cripples, that it causes fear...the fear of "what if."


Oh the dreaded "what if."  Over the years I've told my kids there are no "what ifs," there is only the truth and it's the truth we must live in because it is alive.  We can waste our time and hearts on the "what ifs."  Moments when we should be living are spent fretting and worrying, making up scenarios in our heads.  Because the more scenarios we can make up and figure out and find our way out of, the less pain we'll feel if the "what ifs" actually happen.  We can try and numb ourselves before it even happens.  Yet when we numb ourselves to something that isn't even true or hasn't even happened we numb ourselves in the here and now and close off our hearts.


So with fearful...wounded...shame filled hearts we live in those "what ifs" and life goes by...true life. And you know, most times the "what ifs" never happen.  I've lived my share of "what ifs," at times I still do. Yeah, I know, I should practice what I preach to my kids :)  But shame and fear are powerful things and a powerful weapon in the hands of the enemy.  Yet I serve a Saviour who has taken my shame and has changed my name to confidence and overcoming one.  Fear doesn't have to cripple me as it says in Romans 8:15 "For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship.  And by him we cry, "Abba, Father."


Overcoming one...I can be an overcomer.  In Christ I have everything I need to overcome any trial, sorrow, shame...anything.  Revelation 12: 11 reads, "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony;  they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death."  Who did they overcome...the accuser of the brethren...our enemy...that great deceiver who would have us live in our shame and fear.  How did they overcome him...the precious blood of the Lamb...my Saviour...my Redeemer...Jesus Christ.


1 John 5:4-5 "For whoever is born of God overcomes the world;  and this is the victory that has overcome the world --- our faith.  Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?  Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God."








3 comments:

  1. A very timely reminder, thank you for sharing your thoughts, truths and photos :)

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  2. I've missed your devotionals told in words and images.

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  3. So glad to see you're still posting, dear Tina! And your photos are more beautiful than ever.

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