Two scenarios:

First: Someone approaches you. You recognize the face as belonging to an acquaintance – but your brain struggles to remember the person’s name, or even the context of your relationship. You speak for several minutes, smiling and acting like you know the person, hoping that at long last the right name will come to mind.

Has that happened to you? If you’re like me, it will become more frequent as you age!

Second scenario: Now imagine that you wake up from a deep sleep. You find yourself in a bed you don’t recognize. You look around the room and see nothing familiar. You arise, look into a nearby mirror, and have no idea who you are. You have forgotten your name.

How frightening that would be!

Now return to the first scenario – but instead of forgetting the name of an acquaintance, you have forgotten the Name of God.

Can that happen?

Recall that God reveals His Name “Yahweh” to Moses at the burning bush, and says, “This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations” (Exodus 3:15). To remember God’s Name consists of much more than remembering a label (like “Coty” or “Jacob”). God’s people are to remember Who He is, His revealed character, His attributes, His promises.

Over the centuries, the people of Israel often forget God’s Name in this sense. Indeed, God says that false prophets “think to make my people forget my name by their dreams that they tell one another” (Jeremiah 23:27). Those so-called prophets use the label, “Yahweh;” when speaking their own thoughts, they say, “declares Yahweh” (Jeremiah 23:31). But they are twisting and distorting God’s revelation of Himself, and in this way make the people forget the real character of God – His Name.

We must remember God’s Name – who He is, who He has revealed Himself to be. We must remind each other of God’s character, and help one another to hold onto those truths when all around us prompts us to forget. So we preach the Word, we counsel the Word, we speak God’s Word when we sit at home, when we walk by the way, when we lie down, and when we rise (Deuteronomy 6:7).

Thus: To forget God’s Name is to forget Who He is.

Can we forget our own name in that sense?

Followers of Jesus face that temptation frequently. Oh, unlike the person with amnesia we remember what is written on our name-tag. But we forget our identity in Christ. We forget that we are citizens of His Kingdom. We forget that we are chosen and holy and loved (Colossians 3:12). We forget that the very purpose of our existence is to “proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).

Now, if someone asks us, “Does God love you?” we will give the right answer. We don’t forget in that sense. But as the Israelites forgot God’s character and their own position before Him, we face the temptation to forget God’s Name and the implications of being part of His family. We then make choices that are inconsistent with those truths – and thereby fail through our lives and our words to proclaim His excellencies.

So don’t forget your name! Go to the Word to remind yourself. Remind others of their name. Like Peter, see your task as stirring up one another by way of reminder (2 Peter 1:13).

Then, may we live out that Name together, so that all around us may know God’s Name – to the glory of the Name of Jesus.

[Michael O’Brien’s novel Island of the World and Andrew Peterson’s song “Dancing in the Minefields” prompted this devotion. In both, spouses say something like, “When I forget my name, remind me.”]