Everywhere you look you can find things with labels on them.  Do not dry clean, Made out of man made materials, or May contain nuts to name a few.  Like the labels on these items, many of us can see the labels attached on our lives.

Growing up you may have heard – “that’s right you know it all,” that really told you that you don’t know anything.  How about the statement – “you will never amount to anything” or “you were always a lazy child” telling you that you will never get anywhere in life.  While trying to build a career Barbara Streisand heard this statement from her very own mother.  Some of the simplest statements can also cause harm like “you are just a girl let the a man do it” which says as a female you are incapable of accomplishing that goal so don’t even try.

We can be our own worst enemy when it comes to labeling.  Have you ever said, “I could never do that”, “No one would ever want me”, “I never do anything right?  A common one heard by children and adults is “I am so stupid.”  We could go on and on seeing labels that people have tried to put on themselves or others but they are not the labels that God has given you.  His labels include, winner, chosen, redeemed.  In Ephesians 1:5, it says, “God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.  This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure” How good is that?  He decided to adopt us knowing what we would be like and when he did it didn’t just make him a little happy but the word says it gave him GREAT pleasure.

Throughout the bible, we can read of women who had life long labels on them.  One woman familiar to  many of us Rahab.  Her label was so strong that we still use it to reference her today.  What is it – we call her Rahab the prostitute.  We see the label but God saw the true heart and the label he has given is mine, chosen, full of favor to name a few.

Rahab was a real gutsy lady for she hid the spies and when then told the soldiers that they had already left she was risking her life.  If she had been discovered, it would have meant a charge of treason and certain death.  She was so determined that not only did she tell the soldiers that they had left but sent them in the opposite direction that she would tell the spies to go.  God removed the label of tainted and replaced it with one that meant full of favor.  Rahab kept that new label and went on to be in the direct lineage of Jesus.

In 1 Chronicles we learn how the mother of Jabez labeled him as he was born; his very name means sorrowful or born out of pain.  Jabez could have spent his entire life feeling sorry for himself because of his name but instead he shook off that label and we see in his prayer that he called out to God.  If we look closely, we see his prayer broken down into four parts;

1. Jabez asks God to bless him.

2.He asks him to bless him and enlarge his territory.

3. He prays that God will keep his hand with him protecting him from evil and that God will stay with him and keep him close.

4. He finishes by asking God to keep him away from harm and free from pain. (1 Chronicles 4:10)  Keeping him safe from the very thing that his name means!

Isaiah 54:17 says “But in that coming day no weapon turned against you will succeed. You will silence every voice raised up to accuse you. These benefits are enjoyed by the servants of the LORD; their vindication will come from me. I, the LORD, have spoken!”  These promises are ones that we should always cling to.  Even though words can be like a sword cutting you remember the word says you will silence every weapon.  You will be vindicated.

Give yourself permission to finally remove the labels that you or others have placed on your life and replace them with the ones that God has given us.  Remember the words found in Ephesians 3:20 “Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us” and that means removing any label we have or will ever have or hear about ourselves.

Sandi Patti on her Falling Forward Cd sings a wonderful song written by Christy Sutherland called “You Call Me Yours.”  The chorus rings of what God thinks about us.  It says, “You call me beautiful; you call me righteous you call me worthy of Your Son’s own precious blood.  You call me holy; You call me strong at my weakest.  Forgiven and pure, You call me yours.”