Luke 1:59-60
On the eighth day they came to circumcise the child, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, but his mother spoke up and said, “No! He is to be called John.”

In observance of the law, when the baby was eight days old, he was circumcised. The circumcision ceremony was an important event for the family of a Jewish baby boy. This ceremony was a time of joy when relatives and friends came to celebrate the baby’s becoming part of God’s covenant nation.

The day of circumcision was also the day when parents would formally announce the child’s name. Family lines and family names were important to the Jews. The people naturally assumed the child would receive Zechariah’s name or at least a family name.

They were surprised Elizabeth wanted to name the boy John. Zechariah had communicated to Elizabeth all the angel had told him, so she knew what the child’s name was to be (1:13).

Zechariah and Elizabeth knew what family and friends did not know; John had been given his name by God and that he had a God-given mission to fulfill.

Conviction
Stubbornness wants its own way at any price. It’s the way of someone who will not listen to a better idea, who acts simply in order to exert the power of their own will.

Conviction is the settled confidence God is leading and you intend to follow, come what may. Conviction isn’t our will against the advice of others; it’s our will surrendered to God’s will.

Elizabeth had the conviction to name her son John.

Elizabeth’s quality in the naming of her son is the courage to depend on God’s strength alone, the confidence that God has said, “I’ll show you the way.”

We should trade our stubbornness for God-guided conviction.

Rebellion is as bad as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as bad as worshiping idols.
1 Samuel 15:23 (NLT)