The Wrestling Match of Hope
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Hope in God is eternal substance, but that does not mean we will automatically enjoy its benefits. I sometimes liken it to what happened with Jacob when he wrestled.⚓️. ⚓️. ⚓️
You are not where you are going. You are not where you have been. You are, where you are. It is, what it is. That’s not a bad thing when, you come to terms with God’s goodness with you in that place.
We can become paralyzed emotionally if we agonizingly yearn for only the future. We can also get stuck in the opposite extreme if we camp in the past with regrets or get frozen in grief. In both cases, craving the future or past, we are robbed of the pleasure of experiencing all that our “now” offers.
Hope in God is eternal substance.
“Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.” 1 Corinthians 13:13
That does not mean we will automatically enjoy it’s benefits. I sometimes liken it to what happened with Jacob when he wrestled.
When the messengers returned to Jacob, they said, “We went to your brother Esau, and now he is coming to meet you, and four hundred men are with him.” In great fear and distress, Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, and the flocks and herds and camels as well. He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape.” Genesis 32:6-8 Niv
Notice what happened next…
Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’ ” Genesis 32:9-12 NIV
How did Jacob pray?
He remembered God’s goodness in times past. “Oh God of my father, Abraham.”
He came in humility of heart. “I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant.”
He called to mind how far God had brought him. “I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps.”
Then he cried out for help while acknowledging his fears. “Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children.”
And last, but not least, He clung to the promises of God. “But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.’”
Genesis 32:24-26 goes on to say,
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.”
“I will not let you go unless you bless me.” This is what I call, Holy Ghost ATTITUDE! It’s the iron clad substance that fortifies our soul when everything demands we quit. We confront the fear with, I will not quit. No way. No how.
Getting to this kind of Hope was not instantaneous. Something inside Jacob changed as he poured out his heart to God. Though I list processes in this writing to delineate, I doubt Jacob was going off a checklist. He was crying out earnestly. Oh, God! Help. This is where I am. This is how far You brought me. This is what I need. This is what You said.
God met with Jacob, not only through the entirety of this prayer, but also throughout Jacob’s life; the good, the bad, and the ugly. In spite of trials and countless broken promises from Laban, Jacob became increasingly strong in looking to God as being faithful, when life and others were not. Like I said earlier, this did not mean that Jacob never doubted or feared. He just met with God authentically during those times..
I see Hope as being a steadfast journey of living with God in the now.
It is trusting the Eternal God: Who Was, Who Is, and Who Is To Come.
I come to a resting place where I can finally be wherever I am because…
He is with me always… even until the end of the world.