AbraHAM, please

Good afternoon everybody,
In Genesis, there is a man named Abram. He had been blessed by God, beat kings in battle, walked through the blood in covenant with God Himself, and had Ishmael in his own strength. He has been shown the stars in the sky, representing the number of children he will have. And still does not have the child of promise. Abram is ninety nine, and Ishmael is thirteen. And now God promises specifically that Sarai will be the mother, and he laughs. She is 90. Abram asks God to bless Ishmael, so he won’t have to work his faith anymore. You know, walking by faith is not easy. With each passing month, Sarai was getting older. She was barren all her life, and gave up hope when she gave her servant to Abram for bearing a child.
So Abram laughs and asks God to bless Ishmael. God has another plan, though, and it involves (uh huh) more faith. He calls Abram (meaning ‘exalted father’) a new name, Abraham (meaning ‘father of many’) and Sarai Sarah.
Now Abraham has a choice… every time someone calls him Abram, he can ignore it and leave well enough alone or he can say, ‘I am Abraham now.’ He can make it a private thing between him and God, or risk being a laughingstock by making everyone call him Abraham. I mean, he had hundreds of servants, he was envied by kings. They might have been snickering behind his back.
Did he know that if he kept quiet, he could hinder the plan of God? I don’t know. But he did make it public, gave God glory ahead of time, and had Isaac about a year later!
So why did I choose this story? Because I was given a name a few years back, when I was walking with a walker. Several ladies called me by this name, but I was, well, a little embarrassed by it. I wasn’t sure it was really from the Lord. I didn’t think it was that important, and maybe it isn’t. But then this year someone else called me by this name, so maybe it is from the Lord. Maybe I should not be embarrassed by it. Well, here goes. The name is twinkletoes. Sounds ridiculous to me. But I bet Abraham sounded funny to Abraham while he was still Abram.
So I am twinkletoes. :} quite a faith statement. It refers to a dancer who is especially graceful on her feet. Usually little girls.

Has the Lord given you a name, or a word for your future ? Remember, every word in the New testament is written to you personally. Every word in the old testament is an example for you. He calls you righteous. He calls you His child, His brother, His bride. He calls you healed. He calls you blessed. He calls you strong. He even calls you rich. It’s all in the new testament. You!
Now the question is, will you call yourself all that? Will you, will I, look at the ‘seen’ stuff to dictate who we are, or will we call ourselves what God calls us? God looks at us only through eyes of faith. Why? Because it is who He is! Ephesians 5 says to imitate Him. Why? Because it is who you are!
I call myself righteous, His child, brother and bride, healed, blessed, strong and rich. And yes, I call myself twinkletoes, too. I believe I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. You will too!!!
I love y’all dearly,

Healed by His stripes,
Nancy Bass