“Jacob’s Lesson Of Faith”

(Gen. 32:24) "And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day." In the above verse, God brought Jacob to the place where he must now face his brother Esau. Twenty years earlier he tricked Esau out of his birthright and the blessing of God, and Esau vowed to kill him. This night while Jacob was left alone in his tent, a man suddenly appeared in the dark and began to wrestle with him. Jacob knew that this man was sent from God, but little did Jacob know that this night he was wrestling not with an angel or a  man, but rather the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Jacob would later say, "for I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved." Just like Jacob, there needs to be a time in our life where we stop wrestling in the flesh,  and surrender to God’s will and way for our lives. That night God changed a conniving Jacob into a Prince called Israel, for God said,  "for thou has power with God and with men. Once the wrestling was over Jacob learned that his true power was not in his ability to manipulate but rather in his ability to simply trust God to handle his problems. By the time Esau arrived God had already changed the heart of Esau from  hatred to a love for his brother.  Jacob was never the same, and neither will we be once we realize that God's power and blessing is not acquired by the works of our flesh, but rather by our faith in a prayer answering God.

“All Things Work Together For Good”

(Rom. 8:28) "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose."  There is probably not a better lesson to learn in life than the lesson that the above verse teaches.  God wants all believers to know that whatever happens to us in this life, that He will use it for our good and his purpose, if we continue to love and trust him. God in his sovereign will, chose us, and called us to fulfill his will in this life, so that we accomplish that which he has already purposed for us to do. In short, whatever happens to us is already approved and purposed for his glory and our good. God never causes bad things to happen to you, but he does use them to build in us his character, so that we might use it for a better good. In the story of Joseph in the book of Genesis, God used the bad things that Joseph's brothers did to him, the years of being imprisoned falsely, and the wisdom that he gained along the way, to build in him the character and ability of a great leader who not only saved Egypt from famine, but who also brought Israel into Egypt to fulfill the will of God