As Jacob had no strength before Esau because of guilt, many Christians today are also hindered by memory of their past sins and failings. “Do not be wise in your own eyes;
Fear the Lord and turn away from evil”. Proverbs 3:7
As far as mankind goes, it is not what they were long before that interests me, but what triggers “their fire of becoming”.
"What causes us to wrestling with God?"
Is it best to answer this question with “why you ask”? Does it help to know, among other things, that sometimes we have deep-seated “Consciences”, human psyche that induces mental anguish and feelings of guilt when we violate feelings of one’s actions; thoughts, and words conformed to, or are contrary to, a standard of right and wrong? As a result of the “battle of the bands” the conscience is a servant of the individual’s value system. An immature or weak value system that produces a weak conscience or a fully informed value system that produces a strong sense of right and wrong.
As an early milk drinker of the Christian life, my conscience was driven by an inadequate understanding of scriptural truths and produced my feelings of guilt and shame disproportionate to the issues at hand. Was that you? You see as a newborn infant, child of god sometimes we reject that very milk we are crying for, at first, until we get a taste of it. And then with the help of the holy spirit, we guzzled it hungrily. This is not to be confused with Paul’s separate metaphor of milk and meat in 1 Corinthians 3:1-3. No Christian reaches the point on this side of eternity where spiritual growth is completed
Maturing in the faith strengthens the conscience.
Do you find in today’s world of word hippo canceling, that you think about your own words and deeds and found them to be in accordance with the worlds morals, integrity value system of today leaving you with a question mark of agreement?
You see first, conscience is a God-given capacity for human beings to exercise self-evaluation. As I examine, Paul in, Acts 23:1-3; 24:16; 1 Corinthians 4:4, he refers several times to his own conscience being “good” or “clear” which were, of course, based on God’s standards. His conscience verified the integrity of his heart.
From Genesis, family hostilities characterized Jacob’s life. He was a determined man; some would consider him to be ruthless. He was a con artist, a liar, and a manipulator. In fact, the name Jacob not only means “deceiver,” but more literally it means “grabber.”
To know Jacob’s story is to know our life as one of never-ending struggles. Though God promised Jacob that through him would come not only a great nation, but a whole company of nations, he was a man full of fears, struggles and anxieties. At a pivotal point in his life, Jacob was about to meet his brother, Esau, who had vowed to kill him. All Jacob’s struggles and fears of past principles were about to be realized. Sick of his father-in-law’s treatment, Jacob had fled Laban, only to encounter his embittered brother, Esau. In fact, he was powerless to control his fate. He collapsed into a deep sleep on the banks of the Jabbok River. With his father-in-law behind him and Esau before him, he was too spent to struggle any longer.
But only then did his real struggle begin. Fleeing his family history had been bad enough; wrestling with God Himself was a different matter altogether. That night an angelic stranger visited Jacob. They wrestled throughout the night until daybreak, at which point the stranger crippled Jacob with a blow to his hip that disabled him with a limp for the rest of his life. It was then that Jacob realized what had happened: “I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared” Genesis 32:30. In the process, Jacob the deceiver received a new name, Israel, which likely means: “He struggles with God.” What keeps you from leaning completely on God with absolute trust and confidence? What helps You?
It is crucial that every Christian understands that he/she is in a spiritual battle. There is no way to get out of it. Awareness of the spiritual battle around us is very important. Not only awareness, but vigilance, preparedness, courage, and the right weaponry are crucial elements of engaging in spiritual warfare. As we celebrate wealth, power, strength, confidence, prestige, and victory and at the same time despise fear weakness, failure, and doubt?
Though we know that a measure of vulnerability, comes with normal lives, we tend to view these as signs of victimhood or even a lack of faith. Is this the real life we seek, with candles in the rain, a naïve optimism of an idealized world, which acts to distinguish between performers and the characters they portray? Resulting in a recipe for discontent and despair. Sooner or later the consciences story of a Jacob pulls us back to reality; where we can easily recognize our own elements of relentless wrestling struggles and pain.
But, in truth, God does not want to leave us. What we come to learn in our conflicts of life is that God gives to us a corresponding divine gift, Jesus. It is through Him that we can receive the power of conversion and transformation, the gift of not only surrender, but freedom, and the gifts of endurance, faith, and courage.
A popular traditional Christian song says:
All to Jesus, I surrender, all to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him, in His presence daily live.
I surrender all, I surrender all,
All to Thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all.
And my final and daily verse Said’s, FEAR is,” False- Evidence-Appearing- Real”
I love you Christ, because we are freed from the stranglehold of sin. We are set free to pursue righteousness and purity and become the men and women God created us to be (Romans 6:18). As followers of Christ, we will still commit occasional sin. But, even then, God provides a way for us to have our consciences cleared as we continually confess our sin to God and trust that the blood of Jesus is sufficient to make us right with Him. We stand confident in His promise that, “if God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).
God Bless You And This Ministry!!
