Renamed

Renamed

Bible:Ruth 1:19-22

“Don’t call me Naomi,” she told them. “Call me Mara, because the Almighty has made my life very bitter” (V.20).

Reading

Riptide. Batgirl. Jumpstart. My friends have all sorts of strange nicknames! Given to them because of funny stories from their past, embarrassing moments, something about the way they look or weird habits they have. Nicknames are not limited to our friendship groups—we even find them used in the Bible. For example, Jesus called the apostles James and John the “sons of thunder” (MARK 3:17). It is rare in the Bible for someone to give themselves a nickname, yet it happened when a woman named Naomi asked people to call her “Mara,” which means bitterness (RUTH 1:20). Both her husband and two sons had died. She felt that God had made her life bitter (V.21). The nickname Naomi gave herself didn’t stick, however, because her losses were not the end of her story. In her sadness, God gave her a loving daughterin- law, Ruth, who eventually remarried and had a son, creating a family for Naomi again. Although we might sometimes be tempted to give ourselves bitter nicknames, like “failure” or “unloved”, based on hard stuff we’ve gone through or mistakes we’ve made, those names are not the end of our stories, either. We can replace those labels with the name God has given each of us, “beloved child” (ROMANS 9:25-26), and look for the ways He is providing for us in even the most challenging of times.

They will be called Sons of the living God. Romans 9 : 26

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