Focus: Don't Accept That Label!

Text: Lk.1:36

"And, behold, thy cousin ELISABETH, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, WHO WAS CALLED BARREN."

I once heard the WWE's wrestler Dave Bautista say, "People look at me, and they have a certain perception, and they slap a label on me. The guy you saw in wrestling ring is not who I am." How people perceive you determines how they treat you. Anthony J. D'Angelo said, "Reality doesn't bite, rather our perception of reality bites." Our perceptions of people are often the products of the structured deception of the human mind.

People often use your condition in life to label you, ignoring the fact that no condition is actually permanent, except an individual makes it so.

Wrong labels limit. To be negatively labeled is to be given a false identity. People surnamed Elisabeth as Mrs Barren. Everywhere she went she was labeled as barren. People described her by her problem. They concluded over her prematurely. She was tagged as a woman with a fruitless womb. They saw no hope for her. As far as people were concerned, barrenness was her destiny. Case closed.

She lived with that label for almost forever. To make matters even worse, both Elisabeth and her husband Zachariah were descendants of the Aaronic family, the priestly family in Israel, and Luke describes both of them as being righteous. Luke says, "And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless" (Lk.1:6). Righteous woman, yet barren! Faithful and obedient to God, yet barren! Loving God, yet barren! Serving God, yet barren! A tither, yet barren! A giver, yet barren! God-fearer, yet barren! Confident in God, yet barren! Blameless, yet barren. Zachariah as a priest must have been married between the ages of 25 and 30, according to the law. From that young age he had longed for a child, but got none.

Now the two of them are well advanced in age. They are old. Their systems were fast packing up. Another thing is that Zachariah's prayer had seemingly remained unanswered. He had prayed for a child for years and years, but all to no avail. God seemed silent and the heavens appeared sealed against his prayers. God answered his prayers for His people, but He didn't seem to have any answers for Zachariah's own personal request for a child.

Zachariah's name means, 'God remembers.' Yes, God always remembers! Whenever God gets ready to act on behalf of His people, then the Scripture tells us that God remembers. Elisabeth means, 'God of the oath.' God has sworn to keep His word. When the writer of Hebrews wrote about the two immutable things, he was referring to the promise and the oath of God (Heb.6:18). 

God is capable of keeping His promise. He is a promise-keeper, not a promise-breaker. God knows how, where, when, and with whom to keep His word.

And God also goes further to swear, thereby making it altogether impossible for Him to lie or change. God seals His promise with an oath. God says and swears, and stands by His word and oaths. So here are two powerful names: God remembers and God swears to his word. In the first name, we see that God acts in due time. In the second name, we see that God stands by His word to bring it to pass. 

God's word will always come to pass. God is both able and faithful. He is the God of impeccable character.

Just imagine the word 'barren' or 'barrenness' written in bold letters across these two powerful names - Zachariah and Elisabeth! Instead of seeing the names, all the people could see was barrenness. It was as if the word 'barren' swallowed up or hid away their sweet names. Someone said long ago that man's conclusion is God's preamble.

It happened on a day that God remembered this righteous couple. The Angel Gabriel said to Zachariah, "Fear not, Zacharias: FOR THY PRAYER IS HEARD…" (Lk.1:13). God now responded to His prayer of many years. Delayed answer finally came. Lingering response came at last. Elisabeth who was called or labeled as barren was found to have been pregnant. By the time God was talking to Mary, Elisabeth was six months gone in her pregnancy.

Your case is not closed until God says so. The conclusions of men are not truly conclusive. God has the final say over your life. Refuse the label of men. Reject the conclusions of men. Don't accept that label. It doesn't fit. It limits you. It impacts negatively on your mind. Believe God's report! Let God be true, and every man a liar.

Jesus is the Alpha - the first of God's letters, and the Omega - the last of God's letters. Jesus is God's first and last words on any matter. What else can anyone say after God has spoken? No man has the capacity or authority to add to, subtract from, or substitute anything else for God's word.

Listen to me: you are blessed, regardless of what your situation is. The word of the Lord says, "Blessed are the barren, and the wombs that never bare, and the paps which never gave suck" (Lk.23:29). 

A condition is not a curse. Just because you are going through stuff doesn't mean that you are cursed. You are under the cross, not under a curse. Even in your condition, God calls you blessed.

Even Jesus rejected the wrong labels of men. He asked His disciples, 'Who do men say that I am?' It was obvious by their answers that men had put wrong labels on Him. Some say that He was Elijah. Others said that He was Jeremiah, John the Baptist, whom they believed had come back to life in Jesus, or just one of the prophets. But Jesus was certainly none of those. Jesus transcends all that we call Him. Origen, one of the early Church fathers, said, "For whatever be the knowledge which we are able to obtain of God, either by perception or reflection, we must of necessity believe that He is by many degrees far better than what we perceive Him to be." Jesus is surely bigger than what we call Him.

As people keep slamming the wrong labels on you for whatever reason best known to them, keep dismissing them, and countering them with the word of God. Refuse to be locked up in the cage of wrong labels or faulty conclusions. I close here by saying again to you, Don't accept that label. God has not finished with you. Even at old age your story can still change. God will remember you and keep His oath. The answer to your prayer is coming through. Your God has the final word over your life.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter