Choose your future

As we move away from the negative labels, we need to ensure that we reject being relabelled with them. Even though they saw Samuel anoint David as the next king, David’s brothers still tried to stick their negative labels on him.

We see where the Philistines gathered to make war against Israel and the giant Goliath was challenging any fighter from Israel to fight him. David was sent by his father to deliver some supplies to his three older brothers. When David was out where the army gathered, he started asking questions about the battle and the challenge. His oldest brother saw him, and the Bible says: “Eliab, his older brother, heard David fraternising with the men and lost his temper: “What are you doing here! Why aren’t you minding your own business, tending that scrawny flock of sheep?” 1 Samuel 17:28 (MSG)

Eliab was sticking an old familiar label on David as “inferior, not good enough”, but David was no longer that person. God had given him a new future. David had a different attitude. He said, “Eliab, what you say about me doesn’t change what God said about me. I’ve gotten rid of those labels and the Creator of the universe, the God who breathed life into me, put some new labels on me. I am an overcomer, more than a conqueror, destined for greatness, king of Israel.’”

God’s labels propel us to destiny. When David considered what the Philistine Goliath was speaking against his God, David decided to face him. The same God who changed David’s name defended his future. “David said to Saul, “Let no one lose heart on account of this Philistine; your servant will go and fight him.” 1 Samuel 17:31-32 (NIV). David killed Goliath.

This forgotten teenage shepherd boy moved from zero to hero and was propelled to his destiny. David did it with a slingshot, but that was not his only armour, he was armed with the power of knowing God’s hand was on him. “If God is for us, who can be against us?” Romans 8:31 NIV. This knowledge propelled David to change a nation and the world. David slayed Goliath through the belief he had in knowing that God was for him.

God can do the seemingly impossible in and through our lives if we will open our hearts to Him. God wants to set us free from negative labels, negative words spoken over our lives and from feelings of inferiority. God wants to replace our distress with His blessing and help us to accomplish much in our lives. Negative words that were spoken over us shouldn’t define us, even if they were from people who raised us and should have encouraged us. Nothing that’s happened has to keep us from our God-given destiny. A label might describe something about us, but it’s our identity in Christ that truly defines us.

We must dare to rip off the negative labels. Christ will work in our lives for us to fulfil destiny and break the shackles of the past. Jesus said, “I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.” John 10:10b (MSG). A label may describe you, but your identity in Christ defines you. Jesus wants to free us from the negative labels of our past and present. “Christ has set us free to live a free life. So, take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you.” Galatians 5:1 (MSG).

Anyone can walk free from the harnesses that have been holding them back.