Recovery Devotional 284 Classified Name

JMD Devotional 285 1 Chronicles 4:9,10 Classified Name

Jabez was honorable above his brothers; but his mother named him Jabez [sorrow maker], saying, Because I bore him in pain. Jabez cried to the God of Israel, saying, Oh, that You would bless me and enlarge my border, and that Your hand might be with me, and You would keep me from evil so it might not hurt me! And God granted his request.

Nicknames are bad enough in our day; but in Biblical times your given name often reflected your parent’s first impression of you. Imagine what it was like to go through life, constantly being reminded of the pain you caused your mother during childbirth! “There goes old breach birth!” Even loving and well-intentioned pet names like ‘Sweetheart’ and ‘Tiger’ can become weapons in the hands of bullies and rivals to mock one’s significance and being. It reminds me of the old song, ‘A Boy Named Sue’, in which a father on his way to prison gives his boy a ‘sissy’ name knowing full well how much suffering it will bring so that the boy grows up tough enough to handle anything life dishes out. (I do not think that the end justifies the means). In any case, perhaps the reproach Jabez bore provoked him to call upon Almighty God to even the score, to bless him above his misery. We have not because we ask not?

Revelation 2:17 (Amp) He who is able to hear, let him listen to and heed what the Spirit says to the assemblies (churches). To him who overcomes (conquers), I will give to eat of the manna that is hidden, and I will give him a white stone with a new name engraved on the stone, which no one knows or understands except he who receives it.

In the Resurrection, God gives each one of us an encrypted name. I can only speculate that it will be personal, revealing, and significant to our identity; and it will just be between God and me. Perhaps that ultimate affirmation of our being is what will make us glow inwardly, and ‘shine like stars in the heavens’.

Dear God,

My name is not safe on some people’s lips; how I have come to anticipate ridicule, reproach and criticism. I am hated and disliked by people who do not know me; and I am feared by a few others, though I have little power, and mean them no harm. There is so much rivalry here; only with You is it safe to let my guard down. Please give me my new name; tell me what You think of me. I am not ‘Bother’, ‘Accident’, ‘Stupid’, ‘Expense’, ‘Queer’, ‘Outcast’ or ‘Freak’. Heal the pain, Lord, that such epitaphs inflict. Give me what my soul needs to feel secure and loved.

Amen

All (but*) quotes are from The Amplified Bible, published by

the Lockman Foundation. (AMP)

Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation

*New International Version (NIV)

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society

**Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. (Eugene Peterson's easy-to-read, contemporary Scripture translation)

I originally produced these blogs between 2006 and 2007, which were then published in my book, JMD Recovery Devotionals. In 2010, I am sending these out to a few people as I review them and see if my point of view has changed.

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