God’s Secret Name For You - The One Year Mother-Daughter Devo
God’s Secret Name for You
Bible Blast: Read Genesis 17:1-15
I will give to each one a white stone, and on the stone will be engraved a new name that no one understands except the one who receives it. Revelation 2:17
Names are pretty cool, and they have a lot of meaning. If your name is Emily—the number one girl’s name in the United States for the past decade—it means “revival” or “rebirth.” Is your name Brianna? That means “noble, strong, and pure.” I like that one a lot and encourage you to live up to your name. Alexis is a favorite of mine because I gave it to my own daughter. It’s from ancient Greece and means “defender.” Any girl named Alexis should be a defender of God’s truth. I also love the name Natalie. It comes from Italy, where the saying “Buon Natale” means “Merry Christmas.” So every time someone says, “Natalie,” they are mentioning the birth of our Savior!
When Abram was ninety years old, he still wasn’t a dad. Whoa! Had God forgotten him? No way! In fact, God appeared to remind Abram of the promise that he would be the father of many. And then God did something really cool. He gave Abram a new name: Abraham. His first name—Abram—meant “high father.” What a funny thing that this childless man carried a name about being a dad. (Maybe that’s one reason he wanted to be one so badly.) God changed it to Abraham. Bible scholars say that the new name is hard to understand. Stumped as they are, scholars conclude that the new name means “father of a multitude” and that God made the name by taking the h in God’s own Hebrew name, Yahweh, and placing it into Abram’s name. See that? AbraHam. God did that with Sarai, too, when he changed her name to Sarah, which means “princess.” Wow! From that day on they’d be saying God’s name when they said their own names!
Do you know that God has a special name for you, too? The book of Revelation tells us that one day, you’ll be given that new name on a white stone. I wonder what yours will be. How very much God loves us to be so personal with us!
Girl Gab: Mom, get on the Internet with your daughter and look up both of your names. Just Google “meaning of names,” and you’ll find lots of Web sites to choose from. Write your names and their meanings on a piece of paper, and put it on your fridge! Daughter, pray for your mom! Ask God to give her confidence to walk in the power of her name. Sometimes moms need you to do the praying!
