Day Six - No Matter What Your Name
Tuesdays in my world is full of back to back meetings. Often online these days so that I can be super present for my girls. Our morning began with some fairly explosive emotions running around the house and some not so kind name calling.
That is the worst feeling in the world to let your daughters off into this brutal world where they are named so many things daily, having been called names at home. This goes entirely against the core value I hold of home being a safe space. So then most of the day, putting on a brave face for all my meetings I battled all those same 'names' that the enemy would love to label me with ... Until i chose to arrest the lies and begin to see how this could be turned around for good.
And it was. it may be midnight. But it has turned around by the grace of God and the choice I made to not lean into the lies.
Our main text for this journey is the story of the ‘Daughters of Z’ which tells of a man named Zelophehad, who dies without having a son to continue his name. As a result, his daughters are not able to receive their father’s portion of the Promised Land. (Having had no son, the continuation of his family name depended on his heirs receiving land in his name.) Numbers 27.
In a day and age when having a son was paramount, can you imagine what Zelophehad thought each time his wife gave birth to another girl? We have four girls - actually if you ask my daughters they will emphatically remind me that we have five daughters because Anastasia Zoe is in heaven – she was born at 22 weeks and her heart had stopped beating.
I know my husband Andrew gets the whole ‘daughters-and-no-son’ dynamic. The difference is that we don’t live in a society where that is humiliating. In fact it is not only humiliating – it meant disaster for the legacy of this man, Zelophehad.
So naming them was quite a powerful statement that he was making, At our gathering of girls we spoke about their names and here is what they mean:
The first daughter was named Mahlah, which means SICKNESS - ‘to become sick or faint, weakness due to being wounded’
The second daughter was named Noah meaning TIMID - ‘to shake, rattle, stagger, wander (shaky girl or lady wanderer)’
The third daughter was named Hoglah, which means PARTRIDGE (or a bird that can not fly) .. it indicates to hobble or hop
The fourth daughter is named Milcah, which means QUEEN or loved one
The last daughter was named Tirzah, meaning BELOVED or favored one – ‘to be pleased with’
It looks like as he went on having daughters he reconciled himself to this destiny and actually accepted it. Today please let me encourage you ...
Whether you feel loved and favored OR weak and shaky; or like a bird that cannot fly – each one of these women made claim to their rightful inheritance!
It wasn’t only the ‘favored one’ who got her inheritance. It was all of them!
It is time to realize that your inheritance, your portion, your destiny is not accessible based on your name, or your works, or your family but completely because of the grace of God.
Quite possibly you could locate yourself in one of those names, but as you do that begin to visualize yourself receiving your inheritance DESPITE those names. When you receive Christ as your Lord and Saviour you take on a new name – His NAME! (and tomorrow we will discover His names weaved throughout all these names).
How will that change you today? What new level of boldness does that give you today to overcome, to ask and believe to receive?
Maybe your BOLD STEP today could be to rise above the names spoken over your life. Or arrest the moment when the enemy wants to name you as failure, ineffective, inadequate ... Possibly it is time to be honest with someone who still treats you according to your ‘old name’ and place a boundary in that relationship by letting them know you are different and you would appreciate them changing the way they refer to you. Or take some time with God, in the presence of His Holy Spirit and let Him RENAME YOU TODAY!
No matter what your name – step with boldness today!
xo