(This blog continues our summer series over the ten commandments.)
You“ shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the LORD will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.” - Exodus 20:7
Do you know the meaning of your name? I took a deep dive into my name one summer in college and, honestly, really struggled with it. I felt like I was the opposite of what my name meant. So, I took some time to really ask the Lord to give me peace about my name, to help me find ownership in it and what it meant as I pursued looking more like Christ.
You can then imagine how difficult it was for me to name my four children. TJ and I had many conversations/disagreements, googled name meanings, thought long and hard and prayed as we chose our children’s names. Each child was given a name that was uniquely their own while also honoring someone else - someone whom we felt had character traits we hoped our child would emulate one day.
That’s my enneagram 1 experience with names. I feel pressure, I feel their bigness. But for a reason that can only be described as my pride and finiteness, I don’t regularly feel that way about the many names of God. We know the three persons in the Trinity by many names. We see the Israelites cry out to Yahweh, David call Him Shepherd, Isaiah prophesy of the Prince of Peace, the disciples call Him Teacher. He is known as Lord God Almighty, Lamb, High Priest…I’m barely scratching the surface here!
So, what does the third word or third commandment mean for us today? I think it means that we take time to attempt to recognize who He is and we seek to bring honor and glory to His name through our words and actions. We do that by appreciating who He is to ourselves and others.
In her book, Ten Words to Live By, Jen Wilkin mentions we can substitute “the character of God” when we see “the name of the Lord” in Scripture. That we call upon His character, we trust His character, we are saved and sanctified in His name, by His character. The character of God is so vast; we only know a microscopic portion of who He is. How amazing is that?!
Regardless of what your name is or what it means, we can find peace and power in knowing the name, and therefore character, of our God. How can we bring honor to His name today?
“Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Philippians 2:9-11
Meet the Author!
Casey Yates is a wife, mom, daughter, sister, friend and speech-language pathologist. She spends most of her time with her four young children but works as a pediatric speech-language pathologist a few hours a week. At CRBC, Casey serves in the Breakfast Club, Worship Team and Women's Ministry Leadership Team. Casey loves all things Christmas, reading a good book, walking with a friend, pie and coffee. Lots of coffee.
