Your New Name (Zondervan, 2020)
Esther Fleece Allen published her second book, Your New Name: Saying Goodbye to the Labels That Limit in 2020. Esther, who previously penned No More Faking Fine (2017), graduated from the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics. Currently, she attends seminary. After living through a season of lament, your new name represents the next step forward. Above all, your new name reflects who God is. And, that name stays with you for all eternity. While your given name is often the first thing others know about you, that given name holds more significant sacred history than first impressions ever capture. Certainly, God wants you to understand the meaning of your given name. But He also desires to give you a new name and identity. So, pursue God and ask Him for your new name.
However, in order to receive God’s new names for us, we need to let go of the labels keeping us from our true identity. As a result, we must identify the entry point for our fake names and labels. In addition, it’s crucial that we make what God’s done for us bigger than what’s been done to us. Thus, Esther encourages, do the hard work to heal and move on in healthy ways. For God looks deeper than our circumstances on good or bad days – the external cards life deals us. Instead, God looks at the heart. Hence, there comes a point where you need to affirm that you’re a child of God. That negative labels you or others bestow on you in fact set up lies about God and who He is toward you.
Furthermore, God never stops working out the details of our lives – something we rarely see. Also, in order to follow God, we must overcome the fear and contentment of living comfortably in our old labels. Because, Esther underscores, it’s better to wrestle with God for our new names than to wrestle against others or prove ourselves to those around us. To do so, step away from the world and quiet your soul to hear the voice of God. At your point of honesty with God, you’ll receive your new name. As a new creation, say goodbye to living out of your old names. It’s impossible for new and old names to coexist. Mos significantly, God loves giving us new names and new beginnings. Names better than we could ever ask for or imagine.
Finally, any dreadful accusations you feel during the name-changing process come direct from the Enemy. Satan labels us with new names in order to lie to us about a false identity. Therefore, counter Satan as you constantly retell God-stories that center on His faithfulness and how He’s renamed you. Rather than boasting in temporal accomplishments, say goodbye to such notions. God much prefers that we know His name. In conclusion, Esther leaves us with this challenge:
“It’s time we start believing what God has named us and become who He says we are. Let’s believe with our whole selves what has been true from the beginning. Let us live out of our new names today.”
