How Good is your Grip on God?
We just got back from our college and career ski trip in West Virginia. I have you tell you, it’s strange having to dig the church van out of the snow in the morning, and rolling into Atlanta to enjoy the warm weather that night! We had a great time in fellowship, skiing, and also in Bible study while we were there.
The focus of our weekend was the question, how good is your grip on God? It sounds like an odd question until you look at Genesis 32: 24-32. In this passage Jacob is wrestling with God in the person of Jesus. We know that he is wrestling with God because in verse 30 he says, “I have seen God face to face†and we know that it could not have been God the Father because John 1:18 says, “No man has ever seen Godâ€. Therefore we can assume that Jacob wrestled with God the son, Jesus.
As Jacob wrestles with Jesus, Jesus dislocates his hip. I don’t know how many of you have wrestled recently, but I can tell you from experience that one of the most important things to use in wrestling is your legs. Without your legs you can’t wrestle, you can just hold on. That is exactly what Jacob did, he could no longer wrestle because he couldn’t use one of his legs, so he held on; he gripped God!
His grip on God resulted in brokenness, both physically (his hip) and spiritually. Because he continued to grip God through his brokenness he received a blessing (v. 29). Jacob left this experience with a new lease on life. He was a changed man. God had not only changed his name (v. 28) but He had also changed Jacob’s personality; now instead of being a cheat and a thief, Jacob became the father of a nation. Jacob moved from being a believer in name only, to living a totally altered life that was completely dedicated and focused around God.
I challenge each of you, as I did the people on our ski trip, to ask yourselves these questions: How good is my grip on God? Am I broken for God? Am I blessed even through my brokenness? Am I living a changed life, branded for God? I hope you are and I pray for us as we strive together toward each of these things daily!
