Tag: new Name
Wrestling with God!
Scripture Reading for January 12: Genesis 32-36
And God said to him, “I am God Almighty, be fruitful and increase in number. A nation and community of nations will come from your body. The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you.” Genesis 36:11-12
Have you ever felt that God has told you to do something difficult? Our first move away from home to pastor our first church in Washington was like that. Our daughter just ready for her senior year in a good Christian high school. We had always lived close to family and our church family. This new church was in a different culture and was two thousand miles away. We had told God we would go anywhere, but not necessarily this far! But we are so thankful for obeying God! Our lives were made rich in His plans!
Jacob faced just such a challenge in Genesis 31:13. God commanded him to go back home after twenty years in exile. Jacob had taken his brother Esau’s birthright and stolen his father’s blessing. He had just upset his father-in-law by leaving with his family and herds acquired by his shrewdness. Jacob sent his family across the Jabok, a tributary of the Jordan River. He heard reports that Esau was coming with 400 men and he stayed behind to pray.
That night Scripture says “a man wrestled with him until daybreak”. (Genesis 32:22-31) This “man” touched Jacobs hip socket and put it out of joint. But Jacob would not let him go until this “man” blessed him. The man asked Jacob his name–“Jacob” (cheat, supplanter). The man changed Jacob’s name to “Israel” (wrestled with God and men and have overcome.) Thus the nation of “Israel” was born out of this amazing wrestling match!
Have you ‘wrestled with God’? Is there something that God is asking you to do that is troubling or dangerous or causes fear? Confess your old ‘name’. Persistently seek the Lord for His provision and blessing and humbly receive His new name for you!
“He who has an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna. I will also give him a white stone with a new name written on it, known only to him who receives it.” Revelation 2:17
Redeemed by my Lord!
Scripture reading for December 3rd: Revelation 3, Psalm 107-8, Proverbs 25
Key Scriptures: Revelation 3:10-12 “Because you have kept My Word about patient endurance, I will keep you from the hour of trial that is coming on the whole world, to try those who dwell upon the earth. I am coming soon. Hold fast what you have, so that no one may seize your crown. The one who conquers, I will make him a pillar in the temple of My God. Never shall he go out of it, and I will write on him the Name of My God, and the Name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which comes down from My God out of heaven and My own new Name.”
Jesus is coming soon! That is His Word for His Church, encouraging them to patiently endure throughout the trials of life on earth. A crown awaits those who endure and conquer! A permanent place in God’s presence is our reward. We will have His Name, God’s Name and the name of our new home, the New Jerusalem, written on us! We will be marked as His own for eternity!
Faith Confession: I believe Jesus is coming soon and He has redeemed me from the far country of sin! Lord, help me daily to patiently endure the trials and to conquer my fears, Satan’s tricks, and my flesh. I desire my full reward to cast at Your nail-scared feet!
Psalm 107:1-3 “Oh give thanks to the Lord, for He is good, for His steadfast love endures forever! Let the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom He has redeemed from trouble and gathered in from the lands, from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.”