SCRIPTURE: Genesis 32:24 (TM) – larger reading Genesis 32:22-32
But
Jacob stayed behind by himself, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.
STORY:
Watchman
Nee tells the story of his stay in China with twenty other Christians. The
bathing accommodations were inadequate in the home where they were lodging, so
they went for a daily dip in the river.
On
one occasion, one of the men got a cramp in his leg and began sinking fast. Mr.
Nee motioned to one of the other men, who was an excellent swimmer, about the
drowning man. To his astonishment, however, the man did not move. He just stood
there and watched the drowning man.
Mr.
Nee was agitated, but the swimmer was calm and collected. Meanwhile, the voice
of the drowning man grew fainter and more desperate. Mr. Nee hated the swimmer
who just stood and watched on the shore when he could have jumped into the
river and rescued the drowning man. As the drowning man went under for what
looked like the last time, the swimmer was there in a moment, and both were
soon safely on shore.
After
the rescue, Mr. Nee chewed out the swimmer, accusing him of loving his life too
much and being selfish. The response of the swimmer revealed, however, he knew
what he was doing. He told Watchman that if he had gone too soon, the drowning
man would have put a death grip on him and they would have both drowned in the
river, and he was right. He told Mr. Nee that a drowning man cannot be saved
until he is utterly exhausted and ceases to make the slightest effort to save
himself.
OBSERVATION:
Jacob struggled with God. Do
we? Have we? Lent is a time to struggle with God. Jacob struggled long and
hard. All night long he wrestled with God.
We can and often do become
too comfortable with our relationship with God. We begin to take it and him for
granted. It is just my opinion, but I believe that when our relationship with
God becomes a “buddy-buddy kind of thing” it is time to go to the mat in a
life-or-death struggle. Jacob wrestled through the night. Jacob became the
victor only because of the struggle. Now, Jacob did come up with a limp because
there ought to be definite change in us when we wrestle with God.
It was a Christian from China
who commented that in America our Christian faith comes too easily. There are
no life or death challenges. Our freedom has made it cheap. There is no cost,
no struggle to us believing.
Our Lenten journey usually
includes a few moments here or a few moments there where we pray, mediate, read
a few verses of scripture and then go off and do our normal life things. Too
often I am as guilty as the next person, but where’s the struggle with that?
Jacob wrestled all night long. Now the last time I wrestled with anything all
night long it was do to the fact that I had eaten something that didn’t agree with
me… but with God? To be honest, I didn’t even pull an “all-nighter” when I was
in college no matter how bad my grades where.
Here is to a fruitful Lenten
struggle!
We are climbing Jacob’s
ladder
We are climbing Jacob’s
ladder
We are climbing Jacob’s
ladder
Soldiers of the cross
Ev’ry round goes higher,
higher
Ev’ry round goes higher,
higher
Ev’ry round goes higher,
higher
Soldiers of the cross
Sinner, do you love my
Jesus?
Sinner, do you love my
Jesus?
Sinner, do you love my
Jesus?
Soldiers of the cross
PRAYER:
Do not give us peace until we
have wrestled with you… even if it means an all-nighter? Don’t allow us to
become comfortable. Stir the pot. Spiritually we need it… boy, do we need it!
QUOTE:
William M. Batten: When
I hear my friends say they hope their children don't have to experience the
hardships they went through--I don't agree. Those hardships made us what we
are. You can be disadvantaged in many ways, and one way may be not having had
to struggle.
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