Relabeled

“But to all who believed Him and accepted Him, He gave the right to become children of God.” – John 1:12 

Daniel was a character that had an entire Old Testament book dedicated to him. Why is that? Because he was courageous. But how was Daniel courageous, you ask? Let’s dive into the story of Daniel and who he was. 

It is interesting that our introduction to Daniel (in Daniel chapter 1) is the scene where the Chief Eunuch changed his name. Daniel 1:7 says, “The chief of staff renamed them with these Babylonian names: Daniel was called Belteshazzar…”  

And I say that is interesting, but really this is a pretty common tactic of the enemy, right? The enemy loves to relabel God’s children. He loves to try to convince us that we are something other than who God created us to be. 

We see examples of this all throughout Scripture: John 1:12 says, “I am a child of God.” John 15:15 says, “I am a friend of Jesus.” Galatians 4:7, “I am no longer a slave to sin, but an heir of Christ.” Romans 8:2, “I have been set free from sin and death.” Ephesians 1:4, “I am chosen, holy, and blameless before God.”  

Yet Satan wants to tell us: “you can’t know God…He doesn’t love you…You are a slave…You can’t escape sin…You’ll never be good enough for God…There’s no way a perfect God could love you like that…after all the bad things you’ve done. 

So many lies! The devil loves to lie to God’s children and relabel them with new names. He did this to Daniel. Remember, Daniel’s name meant “God is my judge.” And yet the enemy said…Oh no! We can’t be having that…so he “relabeled” Daniel’s name to Belteshazzar which literally meant, “protect the life of the king.”  

Satan will do the same thing to you that he did to Daniel. He will try to relabel you. He will use any resource he can – social media, the opinion of others, the media, colleagues – whatever it takes to relabel you and have you believing lies about yourself. 

But none of it is true. You are who God created you to be. You are HIS CHILD. You are loved, you are adored, and you are forgiven. No matter what you have done, you will never sin your way out of God’s love if you are His child. If you want to live a courageous and obedient life, it starts by not allowing the enemy to relabel you. Remember who you are and WHOSE you are! 

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bible verse

“So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

Isaiah 41:10 (NIV)

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