In the Name of God
Rather listen to this blog? Listen to “In the Name of God.”
“The name of the Lord is a fortified tower; the righteous run to it and are safe,” (Proverbs 18:10).
Names have power.
What does your name mean? I was named after my father. My name, Erica, is Norse/Scandinavian and means “Noble, eternal ruler, forever strong,” and since I’m pretty tough, that checks out. When it came time to choose a name for our soon-to-be-born child (we didn’t find out the gender of our baby until she was born), my husband and I went on a mission to choose our child’s perfect name. We had to pick a boy’s and girl’s name, and we both agreed we didn’t want to name our child after anyone we knew. We wanted the name to have meaning!
As we whittled the lists down, a few names came to the top and we needed to make decisions about first and/or middle names. My husband ended up choosing our daughter’s first name, which means “defender of men.” I chose her middle name, which reflects the grace of God that we were blessed with her (as far as what name we would have used if our daughter turned out to be a son, well, that's something special only the two of us and the Lord knows).
As a literature teacher, I have my students pay attention to character names and their possible meaning both to the plot and analysis of the story. Perhaps my favorite story in literature that drives home the power of a name is Rumpelstiltskin. In this fairytale, a man boasts to a king that his daughter can spin gold out of straw, and the king challenges him to prove it. The daughter is locked in a room with straw, and she cries because she can’t really spin straw into gold. A little man appears and, for a price, agrees to spin the straw into gold. The first time she gives him a necklace, the second time a ring, but when she is then tasked with spinning straw into gold, she has nothing to offer the little man. So, he extracts a promise from her that when she becomes Queen, she’ll give him her first-born child.
The young woman, believing she would never be Queen, agrees. She does become Queen, and shortly after the birth of her first child, the little man appears and demands payment. She begs him not to take her child and he gives her three days to discover his name or he will take her baby. The Queen says every name she can think of, but none are his. She sends messengers all over the kingdom to try to discover the name, but it’s no use. On the third day, a messenger tells the Queen (before the little man arrives), that he was traveling back to the castle and overheard a strange little man in the forest chanting that his name was Rumpelstiltskin. When the little man arrives, the Queen says a bunch of different names before finally asking if his name is Rumpelstiltskin. He leaves the castle without the Queen’s baby while screaming in anger that a witch told the Queen his name.
Names have power.
Acts 2:21 says, “And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” We have some pretty strong examples of people in the Bible who called on the name of the Lord: Abraham, David, Elijah, Peter, and Jesus himself to name a few. They called on the name of the Lord, and He heard them and answered them in epic ways.
In the book of Isaiah, we are told God Himself knows our name. “But now this is what the Lord says - He who created you Jacob, He who formed you Israel; Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name: you are mine,” (Isaiah 43:1). We belong to Him. There are people in the Bible whom God specifically named, such as Abraham and Sarah, Ishmael, Solomon, John (the Baptist), Jesus, and Peter. Their names had meaning and set them on God’s path toward a specific purpose.
Names have power! They are our identity, a declaration of the hopes our parents have for us, the core of our characters, and so much more. Our name is how we are known.
No name has more power, however, than the name of the Lord.
“Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father,” (Philippians 2:9).
His name is so powerful, the third commandment is about it: “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuse His name,” (Exodus 20:7).
But, we misuse the Lord’s name all the time - so much, in fact, that we too often don’t even realize we’ve done it. We use words and word phrases like “Oh my God,” “OMG,” “For God’s sake,” “God *&%$ it,” “Jesus,” and “Jesus Christ,” just to name a few. All spoken in different contexts from anger to excitement, and all spoken with a complete and blatant disregard or disrespect for the power the name of God has.
We have diluted the power we have in using God’s name.
The name itself is still powerful, but not our use of it, and this is having a crippling effect on our lives. The name of God should never be used flippantly, as a punchline, curse word, or in any other way other than respectfully, reverently, and with the complete understanding of the power of the name.
“Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved,” (Acts 4:12).
As silly as this may sound, we need to treat the name of God the way Voldemort’s name was treated in Harry Potter. All of the characters in that story were so utterly terrified of the power Voldemort held that they refused to even whisper his name. They simply referred to him as “He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named.” Our use of the name of God must be along those same lines.
He who must be held in awe.
When we use the name of God, we should be intentional and mindful of the context in which we find ourselves. As I continue to reread the scriptures, I am discovering new ways in which to be intentional. These have recently stood out the most to me:
· Respectful fear of God (knowing all the ways in the Bible that God has shown His mighty power: Sodom and Gomorrah, the flood, creation, and so much more).
· Reverence of God (deep respect and honor that is due to the one true God)
· In times of desperation (in our fear, pain, darkest moment, as Peter cried out, “Lord, save me!”
· With the authority of the apostles (when we say “God bless you,” we truly mean to bestow a blessing on someone, or when we say “In Jesus’ name,” to have the confidence in the authority given to us by Jesus to continue His work)
We have to be purposeful in our use of the name of God - we need to restore the power and authority behind our use of the name.
We will need to call on it one day, and we need to be able to call on it with the full force of the promise of John 1:12, “Yet to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.”
Please be mindful of your use of the Lord’s name. Stop diluting its power out of your mouth. Revere and respect it in the same way you revere and respect God himself.
As we learn to return the value and power we see in the name of God in respect and with prudence to when we will need to invoke it, I pray the prayer of King David, a man after God’s own heart and one who knew and understood the full power of the name of God: “May the Lord answer you when you are in distress; may the name of the God of Jacob protect you,” (Psalm 20:1).
IN JESUS’ NAME, AMEN
