I Have a New Name

God spends a lot of time in the Bible telling us who we are It's almost as if He knew that we Would doubt who that was from time to time It's as if He saw it coming that we'd spend our whole Lives searching for what our identity, what our real name was And that there'd be many moments in our lives Where we'd let different kinds of names define us When we've looked in the mirror Compared ourselves to pictures and heard the name "Ugly" When we've been left by loved ones People we trusted once and heard the name "Unworthy" When we've been drowning in discouragement Living in a seemingly never-ending Crisis and heard the name "Forgotten" When we've had our hopes up and our hearts open only to Be brought down by closed doors, and we've heard "Rejected" When we look for infinite affirming love Through lesser physical fleshly versions When we give it away or when it was stolen and we hear "impure" We hear "garbage" When we go to other vices to ease our pain and we hear "addict" We hear "forever broken" When we feel like we're living in the shadow of Someone else's calling, and we hear "second place" When our pain cripples us to a point where we don't Even know how to let others in, and we hear "lonely" When our past seems too gross for Others to forgive, and we hear "disgusting" It's overwhelming These voices we're constantly hearing It's suffocating, this air of constant critique and comparing And it's sort of amazing the people Whose voices I've allowed to name me The power I've given to my past, to my mirror And to my surroundings, and enabled them to identify me The amount of years I've spent Living up to whatever others say over me But God says something else about me It's like He knew there would be other voices So He wrote His voice down in a timeless Book of truths that would Remind us over and over again in the moments when Lies would block His truths and somehow make us forget I'm going back to the source Not the people I've allowed to represent God to me But the actual, literal Tangible words that He has written down for me And there's some other names He's given to me John 15:15 He calls me "friend" 1 Thessalonians 1:4 He calls me "chosen" Ephesians 2:10 He calls me His "workmanship" He calls me His "art" He calls me "hand-made" He calls me "purposed" and "fashioned for good things" Corinthians 6:19 He calls my body "a temple" He calls it "the residence of the Holy Spirit" Acts 1:8 He calls me His "messenger to the world" Galatians 3:26 He calls me His "child" Romans 5:8 He calls me "greatly loved" John 8:36 He calls me "free", "free indeed" 2 Corinthians 5:17 He calls me "brand new" And it's amazing how different these names Are from the names I'm used to listening to And in my journey to discover who I really am In my battle to uncover the truths of Myself, I've learned something new about my name And now, this is what I am certain of My name is not the name the world calls me My name is not the name my past calls me My name is not even the name my own mirror calls me But my name, my name is the name I answer to And I can choose today from this Moment forward to answer to a new name When I hear "lonely", that's not me When I hear "disgusting", that's not me When I hear "unworthy", I don't even look over my shoulder When I hear "broken", they must have confused me Please, look elsewhere When I hear "ugly", "abandoned", "useless", "forgotten" I figure someone just has to remind them maybe those were my Old names, but they're no longer the names that I respond to My name is the name I've chosen to spend my days living up to And if these other voices are not saying the same thing that the Truth is, I look in my mirror and I repeat This: they have no right to be speaking to you When you stop answering to your old names They stop having power over you The names that my Father, eternity's Author The world's Creator has called me are the only names that I answer to When I hear "friend of God", that's my name "God's workmanship", that's my name "Chosen", that's my name "Loved, wanted, created with a purpose", that's my name "God's temple", that's my name "God's messenger", that's my name "Free", that's my name "Child of God", you must be looking for me "Greatly loved", you must be calling for me "Brand new", that is my name That is the name that I respond to The enemy has no power here Perfect love casts out fear And perfect love has named me and you What is your new name? What is stirring up inside of you when you hear These words, that His word, that the Word has proclaimed? What do you know is the name God is calling you? Maybe it's not the name you grew up with Maybe it's not the name your old friends associate you with Maybe it's not the name that your Whole life you were used to identifying with But it's the name you now answer to So when the enemy tries to get to you It's the name you introduce yourself with As for me, my name is "forgiven" My name is "free" My name is "brand new, loved, wanted, child of God Created with a purpose", and it's been a pleasure to meet you