Today's Scripture: Genesis : 32:22-30, Hosea 12:3-4, and Isaiah 43:1-7
Have you ever walked into an event or maybe church and felt like no one could ever relate to you? For the most part people will always put on a happy face and walk around looking their best, when inside they are at their worst. Jessica calls this "Comparing your inside to someone else's outside." It's sometimes hard to remember that everyone is struggling with something.
The other day I had to go get my vitamin D level checked, they was a little bit of a wait but I had time since my youngest was at preschool. While I was waiting the lady next to me started talking to her mom about her daughter and how she is suffering from lime disease. She talked about how sick she was just months ago and how they feared loosing her completely. She told her mom how she and her husband have leaned on the church and each other. You never would have guessed that this family was battled something so hard.
Seeing Jacob from the outside you would have thought that he was happy and successful. He had a large family, wealth, land, and livestock. But Jacob was a total mess on the inside, he took what wasn't his, rain from his mistakes and turned away from his past. With all that Jacob had we was dissatisfied and discontent. He finally decided it was time to pack up and go face his past. When Jacob and his followers reached the Jabbok river he sent all his possessions and sent them across with all his people. And there Jacob was all alone and empty, but he wasn't alone for long. Genesis 32:24 "So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak" At the end of the fight the man asked "What is your name?" and Jacob answered "I am Jacob". Finally an honest answer! The man (the heavenly father) blessed Jacob. God then renamed Jacob "Israel". When we are honest about our desperate state and our need for God, then He can start changing and molding us into the ones He wants us to be.
Jacob learned that the more he gained, the more he lost. When he let go, the more he gained. We have to stop trying to manage our mess all alone. By turning it over to God He will work with us and help us to make the needed changes to improve our situation.
Read Matthew 16:24-26 and Isaiah 43:1-7
"God will always be there to offer a new blessing, a new name, and a new chance to be be declared His children."
At the end of this chapter there is an activity to draw a river, on one side list the things you've been clinging to. On the other side write your name, God's name and write a prayer to help you let go and cling only to God.
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