Day 4 with Moses: The Lord knows your name.

“Then Moses said, “I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn.” So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.””

‭‭Exodus‬ ‭3:3-4‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

A person’s name is very powerful. You can call someone’s name across a big parking lot and—if they hear you—they will turn and look.

Many years ago something happened that we have since gotten a lot of good laughs over. I went to get fuel for my white 1985 Delta 88. [Backstory: recently, my husband had caught me gone to a conference and had turned my vehicle into a “hot rod.” Yes, I had proper rims, pink trim replacing the chrome trim, and a big “Heartbreaker” decal across my front windshield. Oh, he also got an airbrushed tag for the front that said “Janet.”] As I am walking to the pump I hear a voice calling out to me, “Hey, Janet!” Naturally, I looked to see and saw this very “roughrider” of a man (no offense to roughriders) looking at me. Now, coming from a minister’s family, I have always been aware of the importance of knowing people’s names; I never wanted anybody to think that I didn’t know or remember their name. That being said, I looked at this man and replied, “Oh, I didn’t see you standing over there!” You see, my assumption was that I should know who he was. I didn’t; therefore my response. He now looked at me for a moment as we maintained eye contact and said, “You don’t know how I know your name, do you?” I made no response, but just kept looking at him. Now he points to the front of my car and says, “It’s written right there on the front: ‘Janet.’” Well, you can imagine the laughs we’ve gotten out of that over the years. But this story proves the point that your name is a powerful thing.

When I was a very young girl it was a popular thing to do, that if you “liked” a guy, you would write his name over and over again; something about writing that “special” name was very satisfying. (This didn’t work out well for me when my mother once discovered my name writing that I had left in the bathroom; I was not supposed to “like” any guy.)

Did you know that the Lord speaks of something very similar in terms of His love for His people?

“Yet Jerusalem says, “The Lord has deserted us; the Lord has forgotten us.” “Never! Can a mother forget her nursing child? Can she feel no love for the child she has borne? But even if that were possible, I would not forget you! See, I have written your name on the palms of my hands. Always in my mind is a picture of Jerusalem’s walls in ruins.”

‭‭Isaiah‬ ‭49:14-16‬ ‭NLT‬‬

Now, I dare say, if the Lord knows those who are His, He keeps all their (our) names constantly before Him. God is not an impersonal, cosmic CEO way off somewhere; He is our father and He knows who we are.

“Nevertheless the solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: “The Lord knows those who are His,…””

‭‭II Timothy‬ ‭2:19‬ NKJV‬‬

When we left Moses yesterday he had turned aside to see why the burning bush was not being consumed. Now, we see that when the Lord observes Moses coming to investigate, He calls out Moses’ name. Moses immediately responds, “Here I am.”

Because of circumstances in your life, maybe even because of your own failings, you may be of the opinion (subconsciously or consciously) that the Lord doesn’t know or care about you. It’s hard to imagine that the Creator of all that is would actually know us personally. But indeed He does. And when He calls us, He does so directly, knowing who we are and what He wants us to do.

For today let us discover what Moses discovered:

The Lord knows your name.

#40dayswithmoses