"No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham." (Genesis 17:5)
God is a renamer. He doesn't hesitate to take your old person and make you new. All through Scripture, God exemplifies his heart of renewal by renaming people he loved.
He modified Sarai's name to Sarah. Both names mean princess, but, when God renewed her name, she was in need of a refreshed version of her royal name. Years had passed by, and she had no child, even though her husband was to become an ancestor to kings. Her name had become a joke to her, so God reemphasized it: You will be the mother of royals, Sarah, for you are a princess.
God changed Jacob's name to Israel. The man had been a deceiver and thief, a heel grabbing supplanter, but God renamed him. He would be known -- and so would his offspring -- as Israel. He'd striven with God at the brook, and God had won, so he was given a new name meaning "God strives" or "he strives with God." He was to become a nation intertwined with the God of all flesh.
God changed Simon's name to Peter, which means stone or rock. Sorry, Dwayne Johnson, but Peter was the original Rock. Jesus knew Peter's confession in Caesarea Philippi would be a major foundation of the church, and he knew Peter would be a major player in introducing the gospel to the Gentile world. So Jesus said, "Simon, nice to meet you. I will call you Peter." (John 1:42 paraphrase)
And God did the same with our man Abraham. He was given the name Abram, which means "exalted father." It pointed back to his father, Terah. When Abram sported it, he wasn't a father at all. It was a name which brought up memories of the past.
But Abram's name was changed to Abraham, meaning "father of nations." God had made him promises that he would become a great nation and that through his descendants all the nations of the earth would be blessed. Jesus came from Abraham, and through him, the nations of the earth are blessed, but Abraham had to enjoy those promises by faith. And this new name, Abraham, was a forward-looking name. It no longer looked back to Abraham's origins, but forward to coming fruitfulness.
I believe God does the same for you and me. He sees our origin story. He knows from where we've come. He wills to use the past for his glory. But he is also moving forward. He wants to do forward-looking work in our lives. We might not get a brand new name, at least not here on earth, but we get more than that. We get a new identity. We become partakers of the divine nature. We are placed in Christ. We are born again. We are completely new.
Let us forget what is behind and press forward to all he has ahead!
But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13–14, ESV).
