Wrestling With God
Genesis 32:24-30
So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless you bless me.” The man asked him, “What is our name?” “Jacob,” he answered. Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.” Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face and yet my life was spared.”
Maybe this is the scariest verse in the Bible for me that says Jacob struggled with God and overcome. Because of our free will, God will allow us to reject him, sin against him, deliberately hurt him, and even mock him. While he will allow us to do this, this is not to say that there will not be consequences from it. There always will be! They will come on earth as well as later when we stand before God at the Great White Throne Judgment. (Rev 20:11-15) And I am safe in saying that our overcoming God will always had negative results. Our overcoming God will always bring our ultimate defeat. Only by surrendering to God will we have ultimate victory!
Satan, the powers of darkness and the world would like us to think that God really doesn’t have our best interest in mind for us and we can not trust him. They say that if we could trust God, then why do we have such sorrow in our life? The answer to this is it is because of our sinful rebellion and fighting against God’s will. To this Satan will only laugh, but he is a liar. Since he deceived Adam and Eve into thinking that they could not trust God any longer he and the fallen angels that follow him have been doing this to this very day and will until it no longer works.
The name Israel means he struggles with God. To this very day the Jewish people still struggle or wrestle with God’s will for them. Because they and the world reject Jesus as their Lord and Savior, they nor the world will know no peace. Nations and individuals alike will not have peace by overcoming God’s will for them. To pray for Israel and even the world to have peace are prayers God will never answer until full surrender on the part of the world and individuals comes about. Some will remind us that when Jesus returns and rules for 1,000 years there will be peace, but this does not last forever. You see for 1,000 years Jesus makes the world live in peace. At the end of that 1,000 years he will allow Satan who he has bound to prevent the people being deceived to once again convince the world that God doesn’t have their best interest in mind for them, and then a great rebellion once again breaks out against Jesus for one last time. The world will once again fight against the one that loves them the most.
Then comes the terrible day of judgment where everyone will have to stand before God to give account of their life. While it will begin with the church
(I Peter 4:17), Christians will not be held accountable for their sins, because they have surrendered to God’s will for them. They have freely chosen to receive Jesus’ atonement for their forgiveness and freedom. Everyone else that rejected God’s offer for forgiveness will receive their punishment in hell for all eternity. When a country loses a war they have to promise to give up their weapons and stop fighting. Only by obeying these stipulations for peace can they have peace. And so it is with God! If we want to fight against God he will let us, but the results of our momentary victories in those battles will only bring about the ultimate loss of the war and eternal life in heaven with God. Sad to say the world is still wrestling with God’s will as is Israel. What may be even sadder is the fact that many Christians still continue to wrestle with God. This is not a good thing at all!
Do you find yourself wrestling with God’s will for your life? Have you lost the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness,faithfulness and self-control in your daily life? If so your only option is to surrender to the one who loves you most. Why wrestle and fight God any longer? Go to him today and tell him you are sorry and get up into his lap and feel is loving arms around you. It is only a prayer away.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, we are so sorry that from time to time we resist your will for our lives. We trust you and love you! As Jesus said to you, we also say now, “Let your will be done Heavenly Father!”
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