Permission to Engage

You and I are allowed to fight with God.

What's that?

You and I are allowed to fight with God. Or perhaps a more accurate term would be “wrestle.” The reason I phrased it like that is because I believe that Christian culture suggests we are not to question or wrestle with God-we are simply to trust and walk by faith. The problem is that eventually, when events happen that we don't understand, we question God and then feel guilty for doing so.

Disease. Loss of a job. Loss of a loved one.

Why does God allow these things to happen?

We have all heard this question and have struggled to answer it. The true answer is that none of us know why He allows them, even though we know that death and sin are the result of the fall of man. And although the quick answer to those who ask this question is that we should still trust Him, the deeper truth is that we have to wrestle with Him sometimes during this process.

The reason I mention this is that I wrestle with Him too. And I'm not giving you permission to wrestle with God in some twisted logical way to justify my own doubt. I say this because Romans and Genesis seem to allow us the opportunity to wrestle with Him. That permission is found in a name.

If you and I are followers of Christ, Paul tells us in Romans 11 that we as Gentiles have been grafted in as branches in the tree of Israel. We are a part of that promise-we are part of spiritual Israel.

What is Israel? The origins of the term Israel originate in Genesis 32-here we find Abraham's grandson Jacob about to meet again with his brother Esau, and without going into the entire back story, know that Jacob had tricked Esau several years ago, and Jacob wasn't sure how Esau would receive him. Would he be angry? Or had he forgiven Jacob?

The night before they met, the Bible tells us that an Angel of the Lord came and Jacob wrestled with the angel all night. Hosea 12:4 tells us that during the fight Jacob wept and prayed (made supplication). Jacob desired a blessing from God, he wanted God to show him grace-probably to know that everything was going to be OK with his interaction with his brother. Jacob wouldn't quit, give up, or let go until he received a blessing.

As morning approached, the Angel grants him the favor he sought, and changes his name from Jacob (“he supplanteth”) to Israel (“he fights/wrestles with God”). Jacob's response to this is the most telling part of this encounter. Usually when you prevail against someone in a fight the victory shows that you are their superior. And usually when you ask someone for a blessing you are acknowledging that they are your superior. He prevailed in the fight, only to ask for the blessing-not to show his own superiority in strength, but to humble himself and seek the blessing of God.

When daybreak came, the angel left and Jacob was left limping with his hip/thigh out of socket. And then he named the place where they had wrestled Peni-el, which means “the face of God.” He does not name it "the place where I prevailed against God." In the name he says that he saw the face of God and in God's grace he was preserved/allowed to live.

Israel-a name that means he wrestles with God. And according to Romans, we have been grafted into his descendants. We are a part of Israel-they who wrestle with God. And we don't wrestle with Him in order to win. We wrestle only to understand and seek His blessing.

The longer I live, the more I wrestle with God. Not to try to prove myself as righteous or right. But I find myself wrestling to understand. As Paul reminds us in I Corinthians 13:12, right now we see through a glass darkly. Kind of like Jacob did, as he wrestled all night with the Angel of the Lord.

But there is always the promise of the daybreak. The hope that at the end of the fight we would see the face of God and begin to understand. In the New Testament, Paul reminds us of this, in a eerie similarity to Genesis 32.

“For now we see through as glass, darkly, but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.” I Cor. 13:12

You are a part of Israel. And in your name, the name you were given BY GOD, you are allowed to wrestle with Him. Wrestle with Him in such a way so that when you are done, you humbly and continually note His authority and reign. But right now in your trials and wrestling it may feel like the middle of the night with no end in sight. But daybreak's coming.

Daybreak is coming.

Standing on the Shoulders of Giants

Ministry is a humbling experience when you keep your eyes open, and it can be a prideful one when you are blinded. Some days I can feel like I'm all alone and I'm the only one that feels or sees something, and other days I realize that I have done nothing on my own and am only standing where I am because of so many others who walked faithfully before me.

The other night my wife and I were out doing Lovebags, which essentially is a ministry that builds relationships with the homeless through providing for basic needs and sharing Christ in the process. I got out of my car to park it downtown, and as I walked to the parking meter (about 50 ft away), a homeless gentleman I had never seen before came up to me asking for money for food.

As always, I declined to give him cash, but I did offer to give him some food. Chrissy was back in the car getting everything together, and we walked back towards her. The man, who was stumbling drunk, had enough of his wits about him to say to us, "You guys are from that Calvary church, aren't you?"

At that very moment, I realized something. The faithfulness of others had been there long before we had! I hadn't said anything more to him than the fact that we had food in our car to give him. No talk about Jesus, jobs, or anything else. But those who walked before us and had been faithful in representing Jesus to him? The testimony of their faithfulness and the seeds they planted were in this man, bearing witness to Jesus and the church that was ministering in His name.

Chrissy and I weren't the first to share hope and love to this man. We were standing on the shoulders of others.

In the same way, you and I aren't the first to struggle and wrestle with how to live our lives for God. We aren't the first to be tempted to be selfish, the first to go through an economic depression, or the first to walk through a trial. Others have gone before, and some have carried the torch well.

Scripture reminds us that we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses as we run this race. I truly believe some of those witnesses are watching because they still have seeds that they planted and are hoping that we will continue to water them with our obedience to Christ. As they watch, I hope we are found faithful to obey and follow all of Christ's commands.

We are not alone. We are standing on the shoulders of giants.

Just a Quote

C.S. Lewis, on why God allows us to go through grief and trials.....
"They say these things are sent to try us.....But of course one must take 'sent to try us' the right way. God has not been trying an experiment on my faith or love in order to find out their quality. He knew it already. It was I who didn't."
Page 52, "A Grief Observed"