Lessons from Jacob...

Today our Community Group lesson was about Jacob. I've thought about it alot since the last time Todd preached about it a few months ago. Here's what I've gleaned, in short....
* What goes around comes around [good and bad].... (noted from personal experience)
* Sin ALWAYS finds you out....(also noted from personal experience)
* You can't run from God...(ditto)
* God tirelessly pursues us....thank You, Jesus!...in spite of our own ridiculous stubbornness.
* He sees the BIG picture, and in spite of our past failures, He can use us, if we will seek His forgiveness, REPENT, forgive ourselves and submit our lives wholly to Him.
(Actually, all of these things I have experienced personally).
*When you have truly wrestled with God, you are never the same.
*The wrestling match with Him usually leaves a 'mark'...as it did with Jacob and his limp.
*I am thankful for my 'mark'; something that is so spiritually intimate, only He knows.

Sometimes I wonder if this was God's last attempt to get Jacob's attention? Was He giving him one final chance...to prove his true character, to see if he would really surrender to God Almighty, after spending years spinning webs of deceit? I love the part of Genesis 32 that describes the event.

We are told that this encounter happened at night when Jacob was alone...the times He has spoken and wrestled with me, have often been at night...laying in bed...and the night wears on as my heart and spirit have not rested. The Bible also tells us that apparently, Jacob stayed in the fight...he did not give up...he kept on and the 'man' realized he could not overpower Jacob, so He touched his hip. WOW! Jacob was tough...I admire his tenacity in the heat of battle.

Do we give up, when things get tough...when God calls us to put to bed a bad habit, a sin...or when He calls us to obedience outside our comfort zone? Jacob struggled so many years with the sin of deceit, but God did not give up on him because I believe He knew He had a greater plan, and He would use Jacob if he would let Him.

The Bible also says that the 'man' asked for Jacob to let him go. That seems strange to me?? And Jacob told Him he wanted a blessing first. Did Jacob know at that point the 'man' was God Himself? Then, I love the next part...He asks Jacob his name. Was this the very last test to see if this time Jacob would be honest, when it mattered most?

And Jacob was honest...FINALLY. He was truthful....perhaps the chains of bondage from the sin of deceit had been broken as he wrestled with the Almighty. And God changed his name. Not only did Jacob walk with a limp from then on, he bore a new name.....Israel.

If you have surrendered your sin at the feet of Jesus, something like deceit, you are no longer a LIAR, you are FORGIVEN...you are no longer known as being BITTER, but JOYFUL; no longer ANGRY, but PEACE-LOVING; no longer DEPRESSED, but spirit-filled.....and the list goes on.

I'm so glad we have the Bible, where we can read about people just like us...that we serve a God of second-chances, and thirds, and fourths, etc.