What is Your Name? How God asks questions that lead us to surrender...

Good morning friends! I am praying that the stories in Scripture are coming alive in your bones today as you experience God! I hope you are convinced that this is the only result we should aim for in our daily study of His Word! 

Truth be told, lately I have been sitting on my devotionals for longer than I planned, BUT I believe that the Lord has me there, and I am not going to rush past His call to slow down and rest in the message He has prepared for me in it.

So, wherever you are in your quiet time in God's wondrous Word…I hope you will respond to that same call for you!! I hope you will require yourself to abide with Him even though your mind and body are screaming for the carnal satisfaction of accomplishment and completion…OR you are so overwhelmed that you are frozen and having a hard time cracking a book open at all. Be convinced that God is NOT in a hurry, but He is waiting for you to rest in Him. Let His faithful delight in that time be what compels you! 



Ok...that was the encouragement part, and you can move on now if you want. BUT maybe before you do, take in the story that the Holy Spirit has been bringing alive inside of me!!! Oh my goodness, I’m more grateful than ever for the story of Jacob. Well…its more of who GOD is for Jacob, and the questions He asks!

 In Genesis 32, when Jacob and God are wrestling, Jacob will not quit, demanding that God bless him. God’s response is interesting…”What is your name?” This took my heart immediately to the moment in the Garden of Eden when God asked Adam and Eve, “Where are you?” (Gen 3:9-10).

God did not “need” their answer. He knew where they were. Yet, they needed the question for two reasons...

1. To know that God cared where they were, and

2. To be honest about more than their physical location — hiding from God — but where their hearts were. 



This was God’s question to Jacob. “What is your name?” Have you lived according to your earthly name, “One who seizes the heel”? Do you know that the birthright and blessing you have stolen is not righteous and you are longing for a true blessing?

In other words, Jacob, where is your heart?  

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I have been overwhelmingly drawn in by Lent this year. I have been in bondage to the feeling that I have been misunderstood and am being rejected by many people...in fact...in almost every area of my life. I am realizing that my thoughts and prayers have been centered on getting God to change them or the situations. Yet, when I began to lean into Him, giving Him what He asked me to lay down during this season I realize He isn’t asking me where those people are. He is asking me where I am? 

He is telling me that He cares and wants to help me live in the wonder of Shalom!  

So…piece by piece the wrestling is stopping. My heart is learning not to be bound in trying to save these people from themselves. Only God through Jesus can do that. My heart is learning to let Him open the doors of salvation, reconciliation, and restoration for them. 



I want to avoid the horrible consequence of Rebekah’s controlling behaviors. Oh my word...let's look at her for a second...

She thought she had to “help God” and ultimately paid the consequence. She sent Jacob away to “protect” him from the consequences of her deceitful plan, and was never able to see her son again. She had also trained him in that way and until God broke him, giving him a permanent limp, he lived in the legacy she gave him. 



From that, I am learning that the consequence of the prideful, selfishness of trying to do God’s work for Him could be devastating. Also, I see that the blessings I am trying to portion for others is based on my comfort and not His glory…and that breaks my heart. I sin against others when I base my joy and identity on their approval, but moreover, it is against God alone that I truly sin. And that has to stop!



BUT look back at what GOD DID for Jacob…He renamed Him — Israel: He who struggles with God, Prince of God, Let God Prevail — and made him a symbol of God’s covenant with Abraham for His chosen people, the Israelites. Throughout the remainder of his life, he relied on God and demonstrated His faithfulness.   

So…sister…where are you? This question is not from me. It can’t be!

God is asking all of us in the middle of our study…

• What name is your heart responding to?


• Do you know that it is ok to wrestle with God?

• Do you understand you must respond honestly to Him to move on with and for Him?

Today is the day to begin...Lent or not! Open yourself to be filled with Shalom and sent with purpose you cannot fulfill in your own strength! There is a plan for you beyond what you could even ask or imagine that can send a beautiful ripple of God's great love out into the generations to come!

“But now, this is what the Lord, your Creator says, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you [from captivity]; I have called you by name; you are Mine! “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overwhelm you. When you walk through fire, you will not be scorched, Nor will the flame burn you. “For I am the Lord your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” Isaiah 43 AMP

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