"Jacob," he answered.
Genesis 32:27
It was not as thought God didn't know Jacob's name, that He should ask him. It was not as though He asked for the benefit of a third party. Rather, Jacob needed to say it. "Deceiver, that is who I am." When he wrestled with God, Jacob saw who he really was.
Genesis 32:28
And so God gave him a new name. Through the pain and the struggles, through the reconciling to those he had deceived, Jacob cast off his old name and gained a new one. Israel. No longer deceiver, but rather, one who has struggled and overcome.
I am Hayley. I am prideful, conceited, unkind. I am angry, impatient, selfish. I am lazy, intolerant, distracted. I can trick myself into thinking I'm more than fine, but I am in desperate need of a Deliverer. And I have been redeemed!
The truth has been placed in my hands, I have been made truly free, with justice placed in my heart. Who I am is no longer my identity. In Christ I have been given a new name - through the pain of who I am and the sin that is my nature, I have overcome. Only through Christ. Though I have struggled against God and resisted His hand, he has been faithful.
How great is my God! To mark the struggling, to humble the prideful, to give me a life of freedom in place of a death in bondage. God the almighty reigns! How can I even praise Him enough?
No comments:
Post a Comment