What Are You Calling It?

Today, I found myself paused — truly paused — in Genesis 5:29. I was reading through the genealogy of Adam, moving from Enoch to Methuselah, then to Lamech, and finally to Noah. And just as I thought this was another list of names and ages, one sentence stopped me in my tracks.

Genesis 5:29 says:

“He named him Noah, saying, ‘This one shall bring us relief and comfort from our work and from the grievous toil of our hands, because of the ground which the Lord has cursed.’” (Amplified)

That statement would not leave my heart.

What Did Lamech Know?

I found myself asking:

What did Lamech know?

What insight did he have that made him name his child Noah — and then immediately assign meaning to that name?

“This one shall bring us relief and comfort.”

That wasn’t just a name.

That was a declaration.

An identity.

An assignment spoken over a child before he ever lived out his purpose.

And suddenly, God began to speak to me very clearly:

Abiola, what are you calling the things around you?

What names are you giving to situations, seasons, people, and circumstances?

The Power of Naming

My mind went straight back to Genesis 2:19:

“And the Lord God formed out of the ground every wild beast and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them; and whatever Adam called every living creature, that was its name.”

That verse has always amazed me.

God created everything…

But He delegated the authority of naming to man.

And Scripture says, whatever Adam called them, that was their name.

Not temporary.

Not symbolic.

That was their identity, their manifestation, their reality.

And then it hit me.

We were created in God’s image and likeness.

Which means that same authority still exists.

A Personal Check

God gently brought my attention to my own words.

How many times have I looked at my bank account and said,

“I’m so broke”?

And somehow, brokenness followed.

How many times have I looked at a situation and said,

“This is terrible”?

And my joy disappeared.

I realized something uncomfortable but freeing:

Sometimes, I wasn’t just describing my reality —

I was creating it with my words.

Lamech Didn’t Name from Emotion

Lamech didn’t name Noah from frustration.

He didn’t name him from exhaustion.

He named him from expectation.

“This one shall bring us relief and comfort.”

And when you read further into Scripture, you see it fulfilled.

Noah became the one through whom God preserved life.

He brought deliverance to his family when the rest of the world was destroyed.

Lamech spoke purpose before performance.

Identity before manifestation.

A Question for 2026

And so I’m asking myself — and maybe you too:

What are you calling things in 2026?

Are you naming situations based on how you feel…

Or based on what God says is possible?

Are you speaking from fear…

Or from faith?

Because whatever Adam called them, that was their name.

An Invitation to Be Intentional

This reflection has made me slow down.

To think before I speak.

To be intentional with my words.

To stop casually labeling things in ways that don’t align with what I want to see.

There is power in our words.

Not magic — but authority.

And my prayer for myself, and for you, is this:

May the Holy Spirit help us pause before we speak.

May He teach us what to call things.

May He restrain us when we are about to speak from emotion instead of truth.

And may we begin to speak only what we desire to see.

Because what we call things…

That is often what they become.

God bless you.

Have a beautiful day.