The Challenge 5
March, 2004
A little late again
this week - Sorry! Went to Willow Creek
Community Church near Chicago for the "Student Ministries"
Conference. Had a wonderful time...
listened to David Crowder, heard Rob Bell live and in person, saw my
sister-in-law, cousin and one of our families Best friends and ate a ton of
good Chicago food. More importantly,
relaxed and just talked a bunch with my wife.
It was fun.
Also, must say that I
was again reading my daily devotionals by R.C. Sproul and for the 3rd
and 4th time in the book of Hebrews, read the reference to Psalm 95
to "Today" hearing HIS voice.
That's 4 times in less than 20 verses that God put the word
"Today" in there. I've read
and re-read Hebrews tons of times... it is one of my favorite books - being a
Messianic Jew it talks to a lot of things that are written directly to the
teachings that I grew up with... but I've always skimmed over the
"Today" references in Hebrews 3 and 4. What a blessing it is to know that God brings the Word alive for
you over and over again as you read and re-read His Living Word. Mini-challenge: Will you hear His voice
today?
Wrestling
I don't know about you but I struggle a lot. I struggle with sin, with people, at work,
with getting old, my church, politics, our culture and a hundred, probably a
thousand other things. Life is not
perfect and it sometimes seems like the struggling never ends. We are always battling something, trying to
conquer something, and really just struggling to run the race with
endurance. That's not to say that life
is all bad. No, I like life. I'd like to live a good long time -
Eternally in fact! But down here on
earth life can be and sometimes is one big struggle.
Do you wrestle with God over those struggles
periodically? I do. I wonder why things are difficult and
without blaming God I do ask Him quite a bit, "what is going on here?"
of "Why am I having to go through this?" or "Why can't this or
that situation just be right?". I
mean when we pray to God we usually are asking Him to fix someone else's
struggles, or our own struggles and in our own minds we actually wrestle with
God over these struggles. Yes, we
strive to surrender our wills and our ways to God and in the end His will is
done... but to us it is a struggle to understand, comprehend, and comply. So, we wrestle with God! Why, why, why we ask. We wonder why we have to do something or
feel guilty for not doing something. We
struggle with what you know to be the right thing to do and yet in your head
you wrestle with God over actually doing it.
Sometimes you sin and sometimes you let the power of the Holy Spirit
help you overcome, but the mental gymnastics you are doing in your head is the
wrestling I am talking about.
The problem is that most of us think that we are
bad just for wrestling with God and we get down on ourselves for doing
just that. I don't necessarily think
that is true. I think that God knew we
would wrestle with Him all along and that He can absolutely handle the
wrestling. It's when we wrestle and
then do not follow His ways by sinning that we separate ourselves from Him but
the wrestling itself is not the bad thing.
I'm probably belaboring the point but many of us seem to feel extremely
guilty for wrestling with God on a regular basis. Look at these verses:
"saying, "Father, if it is Your will, take
this cup away from Me; nevertheless not My will, but Yours, be done." Luke 22:42
"And lest I should be exalted above measure by
the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a
messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning
this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from
me." 2 Corinthians 12:7-8
"Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled
with him until the breaking of day." Genesis 32:24
These are all examples of wrestling with God. Read the Psalms. Many, many of them
are examples of great wrestling with God.
The book of Lamentations, people crying out to God, and parts of the
book of Job. The Wresting happens all
the time! The wrestling itself is not a
bad thing. Jesus Himself wrestled by
praying that the cup be taken from Him if there was any other way.
Here is the interesting part folks, God knew us so
well that He actually named his people after a struggle/wrestling match with
God. What? Yep... not kidding here!
Gods people are called Israelites, right. Where did the name Israel come from? It came from the following
verse:
"And He said, "Your name shall no longer be
called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled with God and with men, and
have prevailed." Genesis 32:28
And we according to Romans Chapter 11
have been grafted into that line, that heritage, that family that
God calls His own. We are also
Israelites. God knows that we struggle
with Him and with men but God also knows that we can be called Israelites
because we also prevail... not by our own strength or by our own doing but
instead we prevail by Grace, through Faith alone in the finished work of Jesus
Christ!
Are you getting down on yourself because of the
constant struggles you are having? Are
you wrestling with God today over some issue, problem, person or event? Are you feeling guilty for wrestling with
God over these issues? Stop! God knows you will wrestle with Him. He is big enough to handle it. He knew you would wrestle with Him all
along... He made you, remember? You can
wrestle and struggle with Him all night long like Jacob. Or you can do it during various seasons of
your life, like David did and then showed us in the inspired Psalms he
wrote. You are an Israelite! It's okay!
God grafted you into that tree on purpose. But just like Jesus did in the Garden and just like Jacob did at
Peniel you can prevail by remembering that it is God's will that has to be done
and by the Grace of God through Jesus we will and do prevail.
Wrestle away you Israelite, it's okay! Just remember that as you wrestle "today
hear HIS voice" and prevail through His strength and His spirit.
Until next week ~ Dave
To make comments, to suggest topics you'd like me to
tackle, to get past devotionals, or to be added to this weekly "devotional
email" please write to: Dave Hansen at philip419@earthlink.net