Brandon Cox talks about the two huge lessons we can learn from God renaming Jacob (deceiver) to Israel (prince).

The Bible tells the most peculiar story of a guy named Jacob who had a wrestling match with God one night. God came to him in physical form for this spectacular experience so that Jacob could learn some deep lessons about himself. There came a point in the fight when God asks a simple question.

“What is your name?” the man asked. He replied, “Jacob.” “Your name will no longer be Jacob,” the man told him. “From now on you will be called Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have won.”

- Genesis 32:27-28 (NLT)

Obviously God knew Jacob’s name, but He wanted Jacob to declare his own name, which actually meant “Deceiver.” God expected Jacob to be able to own up to his identity and to the life he’d chosen to live thus far. “Yep, I’m a deceiver!”

Then God does something quite gracious. He renames “Jacob” (the deceiver) to be “Israel” (prince). There are two huge lessons in this.

1. If we’re going to go forward, heal, and recover from our hurts, habits, and hang-ups, we have to be willing to get honest about who we’ve chosen to be up to this point. Yes God, I’ve been a deceiver… a user… an addict… Honesty is the only way to start healing.

2. God has a new, different identity for us. He never defines us by our sin. He wants us to get honest about our sin, but He sees who we CAN be. And He declares us to be that new person ahead of time so that we have the rest of our lives to live up to our new name.

Whatever your identity has been to this point, no matter how ugly you think your story is, God has a completely different future in mind for you and He wants to name you according to your potential, not your past.