Jesus gives you just enough light to make the best decision for where you are right now. You might not be able to see further than a single step ahead, but in that step Jesus will guide you, and He has already prepared the rest of your journey.
🌿Rest. Trust. Go.
(Song pulled from the non-published archives of 2016)
Let’s talk about hope for a moment.
No, not that vague desire for something that probably won’t come to pass. I’m talking about God-given, biblically supported, absolute conviction in that which Jesus has promised.
True hope is the joyful expectation of seeing all God’s promises fulfilled, and the certainty that every moment yet to come has been perfectly orchestrated by our gracious Father.
In the midst of every hard thing, it is the drive to keep going, knowing that every tear is seen and every pain is purposed. Hope is the compass needle in times of rest, pointing satisfaction towards Christ rather than anything this temporal world can offer. Hope is the sweetness in each season, allowing us to appreciate the “right now“ while also giving us rest in the unknown. Hope is a direct result of knowing that God is good, that God is sovereign, and that He cares for you.
Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
🌿
Each time I read Genesis 32 I am reminded that when I struggle with God‘s plan, His authority, or aspects of what I do not yet know, it will always result in either me bowing before His authority, or being crushed by it. And that’s the wonder of it! The most beautiful part about struggling with God is not the struggle itself, but the fact that we are ALWAYS pinned at the end.
Jacob was an entirely different man after the Lord touched his hip and won that fight. The trickster went from being a coward who hid behind his family and servants, to a man willing to own up to his own faults and led his caravan in meeting Esau. Wrestling with God will either humble you or humiliate you. Jacob becoming Israel was the conversion of a manipulator into a leader.
Also interesting to note is that Jacob never knew God as his own… it was always ‘the God of my father,’ or ‘the God of Abraham and of Isaac,’ but never MY God. Until after the struggle, that is. Right after the heavenly wrestling match Jacob built an altar and called it ‘the God of Israel.’ It was only after struggling with the Lord, obtaining a blessing, and being scarred for life via his hip injury, that Jacob understood God to be HIS OWN God.
You see, the point of wrestling with God is to be pinned. Because under His gracious hand is the best place to be, whether we humbly surrender ourselves, or if God needs to bust our hip to put us there.
