This week’s lectionary texts were not a group that had me marking my Bible so I would remember them. It occurs to me that they may just not be speaking to me in this season of my life. However, they did get me thinking about God and His miracles.
Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that He could not defeat him, He struck Jacob’s hip as they wrestled and dislocated his hip socket. Then He said to Jacob, “Let Me go, for it is daybreak.”
But Jacob said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me.”
“What is your name?” the man asked.
“Jacob!” he replied.
“Your name will no longer be Jacob,” He said. “It will be Israel because you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed.”
Then Jacob asked Him, “Please tell me Your name.”
But He answered, “Why do you ask My name?” And He blessed him there.      Genesis 32:24-29 (HCSB)
Jacob was a lifelong mess-up. It began when he was born and his parents named him. Jacob means “deceiverâ€. That pretty well described his life of manipulation and deception.
But now Jacob has come to the place where he is going to make a change and live an honorable, God-fearing life. He has wrestled his way through repentance and come out on the other side with God blessing him. God has transformed him.
It is a miracle of God when He takes me and makes me into a new me. It doesn’t happen just once. Every day is a new day with the potential for God and me to meet and something extraordinary happen
Jesus is my teacher. Each day when I go to His “school†I learn something new. If I play “hookyâ€, I don’t learn anything. If I don’t “studyâ€, I may not pass the test and have to take it over. Like a really good teacher, Jesus wants me to to do well in His classes. He wants me to be a Star Pupil. He knows how to teach me one-on-one, focusing the classes on my needs.
God said He would change my hard heart to a fleshly one that has His Spirit in me to help me learn and obey His commands (Ezekiel 36:25-27).
Jesus said He was giving me the Counselor, the Holy Spirit, to remind me of everything that He has said (John 14:25-26).
John saw in his revelation that Jesus, the Lamb, would be coming back for His Bride (Revelation 19:6-9). I want to be transformed into this bride that is soooo focused on my Bridegroom that He is my all.
God promised He would never leave me (Deuteronomy 31:6). He promised He would complete what He began in me (Philippians 1:6). He loves me with an ever-lasting love (Jeremiah 31:3). As a wise man once told me, “God is in the Miracle businessâ€. Yes, He is.
