MMA

It's Time

"So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

The man asked him, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he answered.

Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

 Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”

But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.

So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob’s hip was touched near the tendon."  Genesis 32:24-32


You know what's amazing with the Lord, He teaches us many things for our personal growth but He also does it so that when we share it, it also impacts another person's life. That is why at church, so many times people will swear that the Word (the message) was personally speaking to them -- and it does. Now the hardest thing about sharing the Word is that is can "hurt" and the truth is that "truth" really hurts. But remember this, the one who is sharing was "hurt" first -- and "hurt" enough to share it and bless someone else.

Now I know it's the day after Christmas but I know the Lord really wanted me to share this. Please pray, ask for guidance from the Holy Spirit and dive in... (but don't say I didn't warn you).

It's funny that people think the UFC or the MMA (or combat wrestling) is a new sport. No, it's been around a long time. In fact Jacob wrestled with God (or a man or an angel) and not just for several rounds but for several hours.

And today nothing has changed, after all these years, we believers still wrestle with God. And this is more so when God has yet to give us a new name. You know many prominent people in the bible had been renamed by God, among them:

Abram to Abraham, Sarai to Sarah, good old Simon changed to Peter and Saul to Paul.

In the passages above we read that Jacob was renamed to Israel. And like with many others, before the name change, there was a time of wrestling with the Lord. In the story, Jacob was "alone" with God and they wrestled until daybreak.

Often times, our Christian walk is like that, like one long wrestling match (with the Lord or with people) but with no daybreak in sight.

If this is us, then maybe, the Lord is reminding us of Jacob's story.

It may be time to give up and let God take over that one area in our life which we are still holding on to. The Lord has probably been dealing with that particular area in our Christian life for sometime now and today might be the day we reach daybreak and our breakthrough. So whatever it may be, it's time to let go and let God.

Let us not wait until God allows that one thing which we are tightly holding on to and holding up to him as our source of strength or pride, be taken away from us.

God is our strength. He is our all in all. We might have survived all our lives with our unique abilities, our talents, our cunning ways and with a little bit of luck but if we want to be renamed by God, we should give up fighting with God and give up that one thing we are still holding dear over the one who really wants to set us totally free to become the one He really wants us to be. Today is the day.

Jacob's name literally means heel catcher or holder of the heel -- this was so because when he was born, he came out holding on to the heel of his twin brother Esau (who as the first-born has all the rights and privileges of a first-born). His name also means supplanter, or one who takes the rightful place of another. So all his life, he was like that -- deceiving and taking another's position.

And in his own strength, he got want he wanted, but the Lord has so much more in store for him. And when he gave up, he was renamed Israel -- or "one who prevails with God". The main word is "with".

In his own strength, he got what he wanted, but if you read his story he got exhausted and scared doing so. With God, we still get what we want but not on us or what we can do, but on what He can do in our life when we give Him full rein and full reign of our life, and on His divine strength, in His time and in His terms.