Hi friends! On today’s episode of Draw Near to Me, I wanted to start with a little story and then share some thoughts about the false names we give ourselves versus our true names. For those who prefer to read, today’s content is also posted below. Normally, this content would be exclusively for paid subscribers, but since it is Christmas, I decided to share it with everyone. I will be off next week for the holidays but Draw Near to Me will return January 7th with a new faith journey. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. With that, let’s dive into today’s content. Enjoy
The other day, my husband, Jeff, and I were walking our dog Anza out to the beach. As we got close to the beach access ramp, there was an older gentleman standing there with two of his dogs that were not on a leash. Inwardly I groaned because our dog does not care for other dogs. She used to enjoy being around them, but after being chased by countless numbers of off leash dogs, and getting attacked by one, she has no desire to be around them. Mind you, there is a leash law, but many people tend to ignore it.
The typical song and dance began where we had to call out to the man to get his dog. His response was the same one we often get. It was to shout that his dog was friendly, as if that made it okay, and then he made no motion to get his dog that was barreling toward our dog. At this point, even though Anza was perfectly well behaved and not doing anything, I had to run to grab this dog’s collar, walk it back to the man, and explain to him that our dog does not like other dogs.
It was at this point the older gentleman began to tell me in a very calm and pleasant way that our dog was horrible. Excuse me? Anza had made no attempt to lunge, growl, or make any fuss, as Jeff walked her by this man and his dogs to get to the beach. What was he basing this statement on?
Although the only one that was in the wrong was him, the man proceeded to tell me how I needed to get our dog trained. I immediately felt defensive, but calmly explained to him that she had been trained. Then I proceeded to say that she was a wonderful dog but simply does not appreciate being chased by other dogs. He then told me, “I don’t want to argue with you about it, but it is a shame that you have such a terrible dog.” What?
For some unknown reason, I felt compelled to try to reason with him and explain to him that she was a good dog, and not at all terrible. He then said in a deceivingly pleasant tone, “It is such a shame your dog is so horrible when there are so many good dogs out there. You really should put your dog down.” I was taken aback. She had done nothing wrong, and to tell me to kill my dog? I was livid.
I tried to be as loving as possible and thought about how we are to bless our enemies, so as I proceeded to walk away I somehow managed to say, “I hope the Lord blesses you today.” But, when he looked back at me with a very smug smile on his face and a victorious, “Thank you,” as if he was right for saying all those cruel things, I lost my composure and muttered something like, “Your mind is not right.” Trust me, I felt horrible after I said it. It was not my finest moment.
The Holy Spirit convicted me of a couple of things that day, but what I wanted to share today was the idea of names.
In the Bible we know that often a name was not just a name, but something that reflected the character, direction, or something else significant about the one who had it. Each of us has our own given name, but what about the names that we assign ourselves or allow others to give us? In the book, Known, by Aubrey Sampson, she talks about how we can give ourselves “false” names rather than those that were intended for us.
In the example above with our dog, this man spoke names such as “terrible”, “horrible”, and “not worthy of living” over Anza, which drove me crazy because I immediately identified them all as lies. But what about the false names we willingly accept for ourselves, no matter if it is for a moment or long term. The ones that come from past hurts, experiences, negative thoughts etc. Names like unworthy, incompetent, failure, unloved, not enough, useless, inadequate, alone, fraud, overly sensitive, insensitive, rejected, and the list goes on.
At times in my life, I have fallen into the trap of accepting false names for myself. I believe it happens to all of us at some point. In fact, I had a friend that was one of the leading researchers in her scientific field in her country, that told me that she spent years waiting for people to discover that she was a fraud. Clearly, she was not, but the lies of that name had plagued her for years before she was able to shake it.
In his book, Winning the War in Your Mind, Craig Groeschel wrote about how one of the first critical things we need to do is to identify the lie. Once we recognize the lie, we can replace it with truth. This book is very good and well worth the read. For now, I wanted to share a couple of statements that he made in the first chapter alone that stood out. The first statement was:
Your mind is a war zone, and you are under attack. It’s critical that you become aware of that fight. You cannot change what you do not confront. If you ignore the battle, you lose the battle.
The second statement he made that stood out to me was:
A lie believed as truth will affect your life as if it were true.
The truth is that we are to capture our thoughts, our false names, and have the courage to identify them and then get into the fight. We must battle for the truth rather than resting in the lies. It is not easy, but it is worthwhile.
The other day, I had coffee with a very wise, godly friend of mine. She made a comment that often people want relief but not release. The point being, that we often want the quick, low effort relief. We want people to tell us we are great or praise us in some way to put a temporary band aid on whatever is making us feel bad to get relief. However, release takes effort.
Release means that we must wage the war. It requires us to dig into the areas that are not comfortable, the places that hurt, and the shadowy parts that we would rather ignore. Often it is far from easy, but until we confront those places, true healing, release, and freedom does not occur. It is hard to walk into those dark places, but with Christ by our side, there is always a source of light.
The false names we speak over ourselves or internalize from others are the ones the enemy wants us to accept for ourselves. The goal is to immobilize us in some way. We were never meant to hold on to them.
It takes recognition and work to release our false names. Ultimately, it takes a relationship with Christ to fully step into our true names. Knowing God allows us to lean into Him, to receive what He says about us, and to remind ourselves of what is true when the world shouts something so different. He has written names on us such as beloved, treasured, worthy, daughter, son, redeemed, valued, radiant, known, and the list goes on. As we enter Christmas, let us have our hearts open to what God says about us, our true identity and names.
When Jesus came, I imagine He was certainly given plenty of false names. We could probably easily hear people saying things like, “He’s just a carpenter. No one of any worth comes from his town. What good can come from Nazareth? He is a blasphemer, a fraud, a fake, even perhaps with the demons.” None of these names were true.
The names of God are vast, but on Christmas let’s take a moment to remember some of Christ’s true names.
22 All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet: 23 “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us) Matthew 1:22-23
For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Isaiah 9:6
His true names are His real identity. Not what the world said, but the names given by God through the prophets. If Christ had succumbed to the false names spoken over Him, the consequences would have been devastating. Yet, He always knew His true names. Knowing our true names gives us the freedom to walk confidently into the Kingdom work we have on this side of eternity. During the times we may fail, we are never labeled failure. We walk through each challenge fully known, fully loved, and fully whole because of God. Far from the days of the Old Testament when God seemed more distant, through Jesus we have God with us, and through the Holy Spirit, He is within us.
Christ came to redeem us and our true names. This Christmas, let us receive our true identity through Him.
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