Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. Our Reading, titled God Remember's

Names, was written by Katera Patton. The Sunday after I'd started working as a youth leader

at a church and had met several of the young people, I spoke to a teen

seated next to her mom. As I greeted the shy girl with a smile, I said her name and asked

how she was doing. She lifted her head, and her beautiful brown eyes widened. She too smiled

and said in a small voice, You remembered my name.

By simply calling that young girl by name,

a girl who may have felt insignificant in a church filled with adults,

I began a relationship of trust.

She felt seen and valued.

In Isaiah 43, God is using the prophet Isaiah to convey a similar message to the Israelites.

They were seen and valued. Even through captivity and time in the wilderness, God saw them and

knew them by name. They were not strangers. They belonged to him. Even though they may have felt

abandoned, they were precious and his

love was with them. And along with a reminder that God knew them by name, he shared all that he would

do for them, especially during trying times. When they went through trials, he would be with them.

They didn't need to be afraid or worried since God remembered their names.

God knows each of his children's names, and that's good news, especially as we pass through the deep,

difficult waters in life.

Today's Our Daily Bread Devotional Scripture reading is from Isaiah chapter 43 verses 1 through 7.

But now, this is what the Lord says. He who created you Jacob, he who formed you Israel,

do not fear, for I have redeemed you. I have summoned you by name. You are mine. When you pass through

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