He Knows My Name

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As I was getting ready for work yesterday I heard a song by Kirk Franklin.


One of the lines in the song was “Everybody’s got a title, but do you know your name? I thought about that for a while.

How many of us live by our titles instead of the names the Lord has given us?

My titles are wife, mother, daughter, sister friend, author, teacher, photographer, speaker, and a ton more. What are yours?

Titles often become masks. Having a title generally means that we have to act out a position or a role. If we live by our titles then it can become easy to believe the "accuser" when he tells us we are failures. We miss a deadline, don't meet our goals, don't rate high enough, let a coworker, friend, or family member down... When we believe we are failures or may fail at some point, we often live in a place of defeat. When we live in that place, it’s easy to forget who we are. I know that I am often weighed down by my various titles and the burdens they come with.

But what if we lived by our true names?

What does our Creator call us? He calls us His children, forgiven, holy, redeemed, blameless, loved, accepted, and precious in His sight.

Our identities do not lie in our failures. They are in Christ. When we live by our names, there is no chance of failure. Because we are HIS, there is no condemnation (Romans 8:1). When we live by our names, we live in freedom because we know that Christ covered all of our failures on the cross.

Imagine how different our titles would look on us if we lived by our names.

“So we praise God for the glorious grace he has poured out on us who belong to his dear Son. He is so rich in kindness and grace that he purchased our freedom with the blood of his Son and forgave our sins.” ‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭1:6-7‬

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