What’s On Your Name Tag?

Posted on Mar 14, 2016 Topic : Weekly Devotionals

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! 1 JOHN 3:1 NIV

A young man named Jordan wrote me his story. The first sentence said, “Hello, my name is Jordan, and I am a drug addict.” He went on to tell me he went from being an All-American college athlete to a college dropout and drug addict. But did Jordan quit when he hit rock bottom? No! He decided to fight. He spent a year at a Christian recovery program and graduated with a renewed commitment to Christ and a rediscovered identity in Christ. He went back to college and graduated with a master’s degree. Today Jordan is married, he’s a high school teacher and basketball coach, and even better, God has called him into ministry.

Remember today that you’re not defined by your successes or by your failures. Consider 1 John 3:1. Aren’t you glad that verse wasn’t written in the past tense? “And that is what you were before you went and screwed it up, you dummy!” I for one am glad it doesn’t say that in the Bible. But too often we live as if it did—as if the name we’ve been given by our Creator had been crossed off our name tag and replaced with lies.

The last sentences of Jordan’s story made my heart rejoice. “I no longer identify myself as an addict. Instead I say, ‘Hello, my name is Jordan, and I’m a child of the one true King.’ ”

You have a choice today. A choice to decide which name tag you will wear. Let Jordan’s story inspire you to lay down the lies and hold your head up high, knowing you are a child of the one true King!