Wrestling With God

 Happy Wednesday, Friends 💛

Today I want to talk about some things on my heart; more specifically, why Christians have to suffer so much. It's been a topic of conversation lately and it's real life for so many of my friends right now. 

Everyone I talk to is going through something big. Whether illness or job loss, financial hardship or a big diagnosis, divorce, kids struggling, it seems that nearly all of us are having a hard time, in one way or another. And I continually ask the question...why?

Every person I'm referring to is a follower of Jesus!

Wouldn't it make a much better testimony and point others to Christ if we weren't always going through some kind of hardship? 

Wouldn't our joy be infectious and hard to deny?

Must we always be in the process of trying to overcome something?

As I started to write here this morning, I was reminded of the story in Genesis 32:24-32, where Jacob wrestles with God. I always thought this was such a strange little story, but this morning I saw some important aspects that really stood out to me.

First, Jacob was in a stressful situation. He was going to meet his brother, whom he had not treated kindly in the past. He had no idea how he would be received by his brother, so he was worried. 

In (v.24) a man (God) begins to wrestle with Jacob, but Jacob was so stubborn that God had to dislocate his hip to get him to stop.

How much does this sound like us?!! God has to get our attention sometimes and then we begin to wrestle with him about things. I've done this so many times, I've lost count!

Jacob's response was this: "I will not let go unless you bless me." 

Isn't this always our request too? Bless me God! Give me all the good things! 

There's no talk of a blessing at that moment (v.28), but there might be something greater for Jacob to take away from this situation...a new identity. 

"Your name will no longer be Jacob," he said. "It will be Israel because you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed." 

Did you catch that?

At the point of wrestling with God (going through our trials, hardships, the sufferings we are all experiencing), we come out of it with a new identity. We are changed and how could we not be?

As Jacob says in (v.30), "For I have seen God face to face," he said, "yet my life has been spared."

Then Jacob passed by the place where the struggle happened and it says (v.31) "The sun shone on him as he passed by Penuel - limping because of his hip."

Y'all! Do you see the comparison to your situation? Are you alive, but walking with a limp?

Yes, we wrestle with God when trials come our way. We don't want to suffer or go through hardships. No one wants to.

But most of the time, we come out on the other side, having grown, having learned and hopefully having seen the Lord work in our lives, much more than if we hadn't been in a trying situation. 

Our identity changes. How could it not?

If you experience God's presence, his hand, his walking through the fire with you, how could you not be different? Even if you've gone a few rounds with him!

Yes, we may limp a little after that. But it's not because God left us scarred and any less worthy of his love. It's there as a reminder of the time we wrestled with God and he changed us. We need those reminders. We need to be able to look back and know that we saw God in the circumstances and that he was for us and that we prevailed! We made it!

I don't know about you, but I'll take the limp, if it means I get to see God face to face in my struggles. To feel his presence is the greatest gift and the most reassuring thing we could hope for. 

Do we want to go through trials? I know I don't! But if this life isn't about refining us for eternity, then it's about nothing. We are being prepared to live in eternity with Christ and to quote the old song...

"This world is not my home; I'm just passing through!" 

Yes, we have to live here and yes, we are going to struggle. But we don't have to do it alone and as if there is no purpose.

God wants to change us, refine us, strengthen us and teach us and sometimes that means we go a few rounds and come out limping, but wiser and more equipped for the next time. 

If you are wrestling with God (and life's circumstances), just hang on and don't give up! God's plan will prevail in your life and the sun will shine once again. 

Then Jacob passed by the place where the struggle happened and it says (v.31) "The sun shone on him as he passed by Penuel - limping because of his hip."

Until Next Time...

Blessings💚