What Does YOUR NAME Mean?

“Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter.  I went away full, but the Lord has brought me back empty. Why call me Naomi? The Lord has afflicted me; the Almighty has brought misfortune upon me.”  Ruth 1:20-21

Your name, what you are literally called, is in fact your calling.  The meaning of your name is who you are supposed to be, and what you are supposed to do.  It is the atmosphere your life is supposed to create.  A woman named Naomi understood this.

Naomi's husband and two sons died.  At the time of her life as an Israelite woman, this left her destitute and desperate, considering her life bitter by the hands of the Almighty.  So she no longer wanted to be called "Naomi," which means "pleasant."  Instead she felt her name should be "Mara," which means "bitter."  She believed her name should match who she really was and what her life was really like.  Naomi understood the significance of what you called her.  So does God, who gives names according His callings.  Look at how He does this:

• God said, "No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations."
• God also said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you are no longer to call her Sarai; her name will be Sarah."
• God said, “No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him.
• God said to him, "Your name is Jacob, but you will no longer be called Jacob; your name will be Israel." So he named him Israel.

God called Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, and Israel.  Literally.  He called them by their names, by these new names, because of their new identities and destinies.  Their names, what they were literally called, was their calling.  The same is true for you.

What does your name mean?

If you don't already know the meaning of your name, you can look it up as soon as you finish reading my words.  The meaning of your name is who you are, or at least it should be.  Look up the meaning of your name and see if who you are fits what your name means.  If it doesn't, it should.  Or at least you should strive to be what you are literally called.

But what if your name has a "bad meaning," or no real meaning at all that you can find?  A man named Jabez was in your situation.  Listen to him:

Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.”  Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request.

The name "Jabez" sounds like the Hebrew word for pain.  But Jabez didn't want that to be his identity or destiny.  So Jabez prayed that it wouldn't be. And God granted his request.  The same is true for you if you feel the name your parents gave you doesn't express your God given identity and destiny. 

If you agree, pray with me:

"God, my Father and Creator, You alone know who I am, and what my name should be.  If the name that I have expresses who you see me to be, then affirm me.  If not, give me a new name, a new identity, my true destiny, that I may be who you see me to be.  In the name of Jesus, amen."

• If you don't know the meaning of your name, look it up right now. 
• If you already know it, and it is how God sees you, be the meaning of your name. 
• If your name doesn't express how God sees you, ask Him what to do.