January 18, 2011 Wrestling Into New Life

Wrestling into New Life
Read Genesis 32-33

Gen 32:28 “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.”

“BORN AGAIN” is a phrase in today’s Christian language for a person who has asked God to forgive his or her sins, and he or she has welcomed Jesus as the Lord of their lives. “Born again” results from humility before God. It is new life released from sin’s condemnation into salvation’s promise.
There’s another way Jacob is born again. He begins a new life with his family. He also goes to seek forgiveness from his brother Esau, whom he cheated. He cannot live in the shadow of guilt any longer.
On his journey home to meet Esau, he wrestles with God. Pretty crazy, isn’t it? Wrestling with God seems so (is so) weird. But we do wrestle with God, don’t we? We hear and read his Word. Yet we say to ourselves, “I don’t think I can do those things you ask, Lord.” Or we say, “I’m all for following you, Jesus, but I have some other things to do, first.” Our will wrestles with his will, and at some point God has to “touch our hip”, to weaken us so that we will submit to him.
This physical wrestling is a sign of the spiritual wrestling Jacob had experienced for about 30 years. Now Jacob is “born again” into a new life with God.
Are you wrestling with God? Pray for his Spirit to touch you to give you a new life of trust in Him.


Pause and Consider: What does God need to make weak in you so that you will receive his strength?