Changing of one’s name to a new one is trending on very highly these days than what it used to be. The name we bear is very significant. This is because, apart from the face features, the name one bears is the most distinguishing feature of human beings. According Hanan Parvez, a Psychologist; while writing on “The Psychology of Changing Your Name”, “our names are attached to our identities, big part of who we are.” Besides the identity of a person in a name, there are more other distinguishing identities our names carry. The name one carries make others know the ethnicity, gender or religion one belongs just by hearing the name. In those days, the name one bears easily communicates the family one comes from as well as behavourial traits likely lodged in the family’s characters.
We have had a world where parents gave names to their children based on the beauty of the name, the fortune attached to the name or for an extension of family names. In every nation, especially in the Black African nations, name bear could make it easier to trace one who commits crime to his or her family. Names had facilitated securing job appointments to people on discovering to whom such name is linked to one very known before. These days, it is not uncommon to hear people changing their name at wills, making identifying where such a person could have belonged to very difficult. Today’s devotional is not against changing of names, but is seeking to know whether such name changing brings special luck or fortune to the person who changed the name.
What spurred the curiosity of this devotional on changing of names is the ways we Christians change our names these day. Is it that the suggestion for the change of the name comes from God or the wish of the person? Christian rationale feels that, following God’s instruction before changing a name will be more glorious. When God gives a name, even if is contrary to that a particular family bore, His blessing will manifest. We see this from the text of today. The wife of Zachariah told those gathered to give her child name to call him “John.” Then a rejection was thrown at her: “There is no one among your relatives who is called by this name”. Her husband who was still dumb then wrote “John” on a slate. That was how we got John the Baptist. The lesson here is that God was fully involved in this naming. And, the significance of the name showed in John’s ministry. His powerful ministration and its effects still live on as long as Christianity thrives on.
PRAYER:
Ask God in prayer today, to tell you how He values the name you are bearing right now. Ask Him too to show you the honour He attached to your name.
bishopubaudenyi@hopealivechurch