A Letter in LockdownSample

THE NAME THAT HAS GAME

LeBron. Now THAT is a cool name. I’d love to call my kid LeBron one day, ‘LeBron Wilesmith.’ Or maybe, Michael Jordan Wilesmith? I don’t think either work, really, for a few reasons. My wife Beck and I are having a baby at the end of the year and have been talking a lot about names. Names are powerful. They carry great depth and meaning. In the Old Testament, names were so significant that if you acted in ‘someone’s name,’ you carried their authority. And so it is with Jesus TODAY!

“God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the NAME ABOVE EVERY NAME, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

Jesus’ name is the name above every other name! This means that it’s above sickness, above any diagnosis you’ve received, above any anxious thought you’ve ever had, above any hurtful or negative word spoken over you, above any lonely feeling, above any depressive thought, and above anything else! The name ‘Jesus’ means Savior, and that is who he is. 

He has saved us from our sin, this has reconciled us to God, whom we have a relationship with, and one of the many perks is that we can pray in His name. Jesus said, “You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.” We can pray using Jesus’ name, and we carry His authority over the situation as we do so. God doesn’t always say ‘yes’ to our prayer, but His ‘no’ to us is truly his ‘yes’ to our best outcome. He sees the bigger picture; we don’t always (Isaiah 55:8-9).

Challenge:

Write a few things down that you want to bring under the name of Jesus (as many as you want). Pray in His name and hand these things over to God.  

Prayer:

Jesus, today I bring these situations I have written down before you. I thank you that I carry your name, the name above every other name and title on the earth. I worship and praise your name, and I lift it above every other circumstance and thing in my life. Show me the power of your name, I pray.