Wrecked
March 6-7
Wrecked
“Your name will no longer be Jacob,” the man told him. “From now on you will be called Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have won.” Genesis 32:28
As Jacob wrestled with God to receive his promised inheritance, so our gracious, merciful and loving heavenly Father is in the struggle with us. He urges us to come humbly and honestly to Him, confessing the truth about ourselves. But we must understand, as with any turn, change doesn’t come easy. Have you noticed that no matter how long you’ve been a Christian, walking with Christ, every day brings about a new set of challenges? Just as we overcome one level right around the corner is another one starring you in the face waiting to be tackled.
This must have been how Jacob felt. I’ve already made the decision to return and now I have to fight to make it there. If you’ve watched any wrestling match you’d understand the commotion that is happening in today’s reading. Jacob wasn’t just touched by the hand of God. He was grabbed, shoved, whacked, roughed up, bruised, beaten, and battered. Yet still he held on and change followed after. Like any relationship worth having, the relationship with God means that you will sometimes be challenged before change happens. Sometimes it’s a wrestling match that will demand that you, like Jacob, hold on tight until the end.
Like Jacob we ought to hold on until the end. God longs for us to know His forgiveness for the ways we have tried to deal with the problem ourselves, His tender comfort in the painful areas and His release into the freedom of the ‘promised land’ of living as His children – trusting less in our own ways, more yielded and dependent on Him and equipped to live out His redemptive purposes for our lives. Hang on until you get just what it is that God has in store for you. Keep fighting until the end for God is with you.