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Did you ever think that maybe God wants to change your name? God can change our names. He did it for Abraham and Sarah and Paul, to mention a few, and their name change indicated that God was doing a new work in their lives and giving them new purpose. Honestly, I think some of us need a name change. For example,
Is your name Addicted?
Usually we think of addictions as limited to alcohol or drugs, but addictions come in many other less-visible ways, too. For example, there are food addictions, television addictions, sexual addictions, shopping addictions, to name a few. And I think there are others that are even more subtle, like being addicted to laziness or to negativity or to self-pity. It’s possible to be addicted to a person who is not good for you, when you feel like you can’t live without them even though they’re doing you harm.
The enemy of your soul is such a thief and liar that he can get you hooked on something that seems innocent, and perhaps in moderation it is harmless, but your addiction to it keeps you in bondage and prevents you from knowing the full potential that God has for your life.
If there is some area of addiction in your life, no matter how small or hidden, God wants to change your name from Addicted to Unshackled. In Luke 4:18 Jesus said:
“The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free….”
And Paul wrote to the Galatians:
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery (Galatians 5:1).
Living with addictions is letting yourself be burdened again by enslavement to that thing or that person. Would you like to be set free from that addiction in your life? Ask God today to change your name to Unshackled. You may not be able to break that bondage, but Jesus came to set you free and he can break it.