Dec 12, 2020 … Struggling With God

 Berry Patch Devotions in 2020 - Day 347 

Devotional Song: ... GO TO THIS LINK ...    Please take the time to take in song and lyrics from Laura Story singing … Blessings …  poignantly singing of how our blessings from God come discussed as the struggles in life. 

Jacob wrestles with Yahweh ... 

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Highlight Passage:   Genesis 32:24 [ESV] ... 

24 And Jacob was left alone. And a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day.  

…  Jacob wrestles with God.  

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Highlight Passage [Context]: …  Genesis 32:24-32  [ESV] …  USE THIS LINK … 

… Jacob wrestles with God (i.e., Jesus) and his life is changed (even his name) forever. 

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Reference Passage: … Proverbs 3:5-6  [ESV] … USE THIS LINK …  

…  No matter what the struggle or challenge, we must trust that God is using the struggle for our good and His glory (see also <b><u>Romans 8:28</b></u> linked below). 

Reference Passage: … 1Corinthians 10:13  [ESV] … USE THIS LINK …  

…  No matter what our temptation, trial, or struggle in life, God will always be there to lead us thru it. 

Reference Passage: … 2Corinthians 12:9-10 [ESV] … USE THIS LINK …  

…  Paul, with the help of Jesus, learned that God will ALWAYS provide His enabling grace to allow us to deal with the struggles in life. 

Reference Passage: … Romans 5:3-5; 8:28 [ESV] … USE THIS LINK …  

…  God, thru Paul, shows us that we should actually rejoice in our sufferings because they show us God’s love and grace shining thru the trials. 

My Devotional Journal: Today's Our Daily Bread author, Arthur Jackson, AT THIS LINK uses a story of a young man who wrestled with knowing Christ for some years; and after coming to receive salvation, struggled with a brain tumor but retained his faith to pray for healing, which God ultimately granted for him miraculously. 

But sometimes our struggles with God don’t yield that kind of wondrous healing or resolution, do they?  I guess that’s why I’ve always been drawn to two of the Bible stories emphasized in today’s ODB entry (i.e., Gen. 32 and 2Cor. 12 passages).  In the OT, it was Jacob who actually wrestled with Jesus and then in the NT where Paul struggled with a thorn in his flesh.  Both men came out of the struggle with permanent bodily damage but came to realize that God uses such struggles to bring us closer to Him.

That’s why I identify with these stories so closely; because I struggled, wrestling with God for over two decades of my younger life, before I said “UNCLE!” and came to yield to God and His grace, … giving me the strength to deal with my strongholds of habitual sin.  

Perhaps some readers may be struggling (or even wrestling) with God today.  If so, take in the linked song and the Scriptures above and recognize that our struggles are really for our good and God’s glory [See Romans 5 and 8 passages]. 

My THANKFULNESS: ... Oh Abba Father, ... thank You, Lord, … for enabling and empowering grace to deal with the struggles I face.  

My Prayer Today: Oh Abba Father, ... King Jesus, ... I pray that all reading here will join me, to recognize that God’s grace is ALWAYS there to give us the strength to follow Him thru our struggles. … Amen

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Blogger Note:  Everyday during this year, my daily devotional blogs are influenced by the reading and study of the online devotional blog entitled “Our Daily Bread,” distributed online via email by RBC Ministries.  If you GO TO THIS LINK on the date of my blog, you can read/study the ODB blogs; or you can subscribe to the blog via email at that site.