A New You

Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome. -Genesis 32:28

I grew up in my sister’s shadow. She was older than me, pretty, and popular. I was the tag-a-long little sister. Her friends didn’t even call me by my name. They called me “Little Rich” because our last name was Rich, and I was the little version of my sister. But I really wasn’t like my sister. I liked sports, books, and daydreaming. I wasn’t as good about doing my chores as she was. Oh, the fights that we had! I can’t imagine fighting with my sister today. But we are different people now. I am no longer “Little Rich.” I have a new name, carved by my own mark in the world.

Think back to the person that you were twenty years ago. What were you like? Did you have a nickname formed from your own life foibles? What were your struggles? Your strengths? How have you changed? Wouldn’t it be dreadful to be the same every year? I’m so glad God is faithful to continually transform me into the image of Christ. Sometimes my progress toward that goal seems dismally slow. When I look at yesterday, I seem the same, but when I look further back, I see growth. Every day I am a new me, continuously shaped by new experiences, struggles, triumphs, and fashioning by the hand of God Himself.

You are, too, you know. God is working in your life. I don’t know where you are in the growth process, but He is transforming you. You may not see it yet. Growth is hard to see. We look at our children and see that they’ve grown, but do we actually see it happening before our eyes? The earth is continually moving, but do we feel it move? Slow growth is still growth. So be as patient with yourself as God is with you, but in your patience keep striving for Him. Fight with all you have to know Him more. And He will give you a new name and make you a new you.

Jacob had a name, too. His name meant “deceiver,” and he lived up to that name by cheating his brother. It wasn’t until Jacob was the victim of deception, instead of the perpetrator, that his heart began to change. God was working to slowly change Jacob’s character and to ultimately change his name and reputation. When God gave Jacob a new name, it was signifying that Jacob was a new person. In Genesis 32:28, God calls Him Israel “because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

Keep struggling, friend. You are not bound by yesterday. God is in the process of making a new you. Like Jacob, keep fighting to know Him. You will overcome. What new name does he have for the new you? Put your names in the blanks.