Say the Name

In the work-a-day, everyday world, life somehow gets skewed. We set out with a plan, an agenda, and gauge our success for the day based on whether or not the plan was accomplished. In the book of Acts, the apostles didn't have a plan as much as they had a Person.

Over and over, these men and women did great things, crazy things, in the Name of Jesus. It wasn't that they used the Name of Jesus as a magic charm or a mantra before throwing themselves into the temple with wild abandon. It was quite the opposite. The Person of Christ compelled them to do what they did, to say what they said. It is because of who Jesus Christ is that they taught about Him, healed in His Name, underwent rebukes and physical beatings. They recognized that Jesus is the center of the message, the center of life, the center of salvation; the power is in the gospel (Romans 1:18).

How often do I forfeit the power of God because I fail to acknowledge the Person of God, namely Christ? Just to acknowledge His Name would work a miracle in my own life. It would change the way I think. It would change what I do. "I am eating this doughnut in Jesus' Name." Preposterous! "I am watching this movie in Jesus' Name" (albeit many actors perform "in Jesus' Name" but not in His Person and power--this is where we fail). Until we are living in submission to the Word of God, through the Person of Christ, and by His Spirit, we will fail to understand the weight of His Name.

Will His Name change your life today? It's already changed mine.