Wrestling With God part 2

On this past Monday we looked at Jacob and how he wrestled with God.  As a result of his wrestling with God, his name was changed from Jacob the supplanter to Israel, who prevails with God.

What we see in the life of Jacob before his wrestling conversion is one who snuck away from his Father-in-law, Stole the birthright away from his brother, cheated and lied to his father and in general was a supplanter of all that was just and honorable.

How like this is was our original parents Adam and Eve who thought to supplant the authority of God with their own authority. How they themselves attempted to be one like God in knowing only what God himself should know.

The Christian experience whether of our hero’s of the Bible or us today is a life filled with struggles.  Our biggest obstacle in salvation is our tendency to place ones own self above that of others.

Perhaps we think Christ was immune to that type of thinking or temptation.  The fact is her was subject to this type of temptation all his life.  Listen to these words spoken by Christ just hours before his crucifixion.  “He went a little farther and fell on his face, and prayed, saying ‘ O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me'” Matthew 26:39a.  Three time he prayed this prayer. Christ was wrestling, his humanity was wrestling with the will of the Father.  Christ agonized to the point of sweating great drops of blood as self, the same self that you and I have to fight daily wrestled with the will of God who sent him, and has also created us.

As Jacob would not let go until he was blessed neither should we let go.  As Christ gave us an example of how we should respond to the temptation self over the will of God, let us also daily, hourly if necessary and even more often than that respond the words of Christ, “Nevertheless, not as I will be as You will” (Matthew 26:39b).

Three times Christ prayed this prayer and three time he committed or recommitted himself to the will of the Father which gave him the victory of temptation.

Since it is the desire of every Christian to become Christ like then would it not be fitting like Christ that in everything we submit to the will of the Father by laying of self aside and picking up the divinity of Christ, by allowing the Holy Spirit to work in our lives.

Jacob wrestled with an Angel, Christ wrestled with God,  Jacob would not let go until he was blessed and Christ would not let go until he to was blessed by the assurance of the Father’s love.

Christ paid the price so that you and I are no longer subject to self but can cling to the Father through Christ who has given the power of the Holy Spirit to wrestle out for us our salvation.

So do not think you are alone in your daily struggles, for others have also wrestled self and have become overcomers because they surrendered to the will of the Father.  The Father who loved us before we were ever created, who loved us so much that “God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them” Genesis 1:27.  What a wonderful God and all the blessings in heaven come to those that will surrender their will to God.