My wife and I have a three-year-old little girl called Olivia Grace Phillips, and we are totally besotted with her. We might be biased but we’re pretty convinced she is the cutest, smartest and most talented three-year-old there has ever been.

 

In our eyes there’s just one thing she’s not strong at. She’s just not good at receiving pet-names.

 

We’ve tried ever since she was born to bestow one on her but she just won’t stand for it. We’ve tried them all. “Sweet-pea”, “Snookums”, “Pumpkin”, they’ve all been trotted out at different moments. But no matter what nickname we call her, her emphatic response is always the same: “No, my name is Olivia Grace Phillips.”

 

It may be a little bit quirky, but I love the fact that she knows who she is and whose she is.

 

The importance of the security of her identity came to a head a couple months ago at the zenith of our potty-training attempts when we were out shopping at our local Pick n Pay. Olivia was perched in the corner of our trolley, surrounded by groceries yet to be purchased. As we were moving toward the check-out queue, Olivia gave me “that” look and before I could react she said, “Dad, I’ve made an accident”. Her pants, the groceries and the floor were all completely drenched. In the midst of a busy shop, I admit I was a little irritated at the timing of this and was about to chastise my little girl when the voice of reason in my life (Fiona my wife) calmly whispered in my ear, “She’s embarrassed, don’t humiliate her”.

 

With these words as a reminder of the importance of my role, I picked up my self-conscious little girl and turned her down-cast face towards mine.

 

“What’s your name?” I asked her. “Olivia” she mumbled in reply.

“What’s YOUR name?” I asked again, to which she a little more assertively replied, “Olivia Grace”.

I looked her lovingly in the eye and asked her one final time, “What’s your NAME?”.

“Olivia Grace Phillips” was the response which was followed by a cheeky grin.

 

In a moment of potential embarrassment and humiliation, Olivia needed to hear her dad’s voice reminding her of who she was and whose she was. It might seem a trite or insignificant moment, but too often we face similar moments (minus the groceries, minus the potty training) where we need to know that we know that we know that we are called!

 

YOU ARE CALLED

 

In the book of Daniel we find Israel embarrassed, humiliated, stripped of their freedoms and rights, captive in exile by the nation of Babylon. Among them were three young men who we know as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. But in Daniel chapter one we find out that these were the names that the Babylonian enemy had given them when they had been captured. This was a tactic that conquering Kingdoms always did with their conquered foes. If they could change what they believed about who and whose they were, they knew they could change their behavior.

 

Here are what their Jewish names were, to what the enemy changed them to in exile (with English meanings in brackets):

 

Hananiah (awed by the goodness of God) = Shadrach (Fearful of God)

Mishael (confident) = Meshach (ashamed/defeated)

Azariah (God is my helper) = Abednego (slave of nego)

 

Why this is so key for us to understand is not that it once happened, but that it happens still today! Our enemy, the devil, uses this as one of his number one tactics because he knows that if he can get us to forget our calling, it won’t be long before we’re falling.

 

If he can get us to forget our calling, it won’t be long before we are falling

 

The enemy will name us by our past, by what we’ve done and what we haven’t done, while God names us by our future. The enemy will continually point out where we’ve been, while Jesus will continually point out where we’re called to go.

 

Your heavenly Father has seen you at your worst and yet still calls you son, daughter, beloved, more than a conqueror, the very righteousness of God!

 

In this day and age, seemingly more than ever, we are needing to allow the voice and calling of the Father to silence the voice of the enemy in our lives.

 

So today as you read this, maybe your sin and circumstances have left you embarrassed, fearful, anxious, humiliated or broken. Will you hear the Father’s voice lovingly ask you, “What’s your name?”

 

It’s time for us to become more consumed with our calling than with our circumstance and sin.

 

Because the powerful reality is that Jesus is!

 

 

Blog written by Gabe Phillips

Gabe and Fiona lead the Life Changers Milnerton and City congregations