As I was reading today, I couldn't get past Jabez. Out of all the names in these chapters, God stops...just for him.
His mother named him Jabez because his birth was painful. Imagine carrying that your whole life. Every time someone called your name, they were reminding you of pain.
It made me think...
How many of us have spent our lives carrying names we were never meant to keep? Not the name on our birth certificate. But the names spoken over us. The identities we picked up because of the people who raised us, the things we walked through, or the lies we believed.
For a long time, I carried names that weren't mine. I carried the weight of my childhood. I carried rejection. I carried the feeling that I always had to prove myself. Growing up with my mother, I learned to become whatever I needed to be to survive. Then later in life, I found myself doing the same thing with other people. I knew how to become what everyone else needed...but somewhere along the way, I lost sight of who God created me to be.
Lately, it feels like God has been peeling all of that away. Like he's taking a seam ripper to an old jacket. You think you're just removing one thing, but then you realize the lining is attached. The threads are woven into places you didn't expect. It takes patience. It takes time. It gets messy.
That's what God has been doing in me. Not changing who He created me to be. But he's removing everything that never belonged in the first place.
When most people teach about Jabez, the message usually centers around one phrase: Lord, enlarge my territory. We think about bigger ministries, bigger platforms, bigger opportunities, or greater influence.
But as I read it today, I couldn't help but think, before God ever enlarged Jabez's territory, He changed the way Jabez saw himself. Jabez refused to let the name he had been given become the identity he lived from.
I wonder if sometimes we're asking God to enlarge our territory while He's trying to enlarge our identity. Because what good is a bigger platform if I'm still living from old wounds? What good is a larger ministry if I'm still believing the lies spoken over me years ago? Maybe the first territory God wants to expand isn't around us...but it's within us.
He wants to enlarge our faith.
Our understanding of who we are in Him. Our ability to believe that we are loved, chosen, redeemed, and called.
People may remember your past.
They may remember your mistakes.
They may even keep calling you by names God never gave you. But God calls you chosen. Redeemed. Beloved. His.
The beautiful thing about Chronicles is that it reminds us God is still writing names into His story. And the name that matters most isn't the one people have spoken over you.
It's the one your Father Calls you.
Love Pastor Mandy
MandiesDandies / Ark of Hope
Daily Reading 1 Chronicles 3-4
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