Today’s 333 Devotional: “Our Biggest Struggle”

God is in the business of changing lives. This is what church is all about. It’s not about buildings or bigness. It’s about changed lives. And every week we are seeing lives changed at Living Waters Fellowship.

I’d like to look at this process as it was played out in the life of Jacob. God changed Him from a deceiver into a person who prevails with Him. The story is found in Genesis 32:22-32.

The first thing we notice is that God used a crisis in Jacob’s life to get his attention.

When we find ourselves in a crisis, congratulations, we’re about to be changed. But for this change to take place you need to have a new perspective.

You biggest battle isn’t physical. It’s not about health, finances, relations, career, or our past. Yes, these are battles, but they’re not our biggest. Our biggest battle, or shall I say our biggest struggle is with God.

Every crisis is all about our struggle with God, and that’s because we want to be our own god. We want to be in control.

Jacob is at the border of Israel and hears how his brother, Esau, whom he had cheated and deceived in the past, was coming with 400 men. And with nowhere to go, Jacob finally gets serious, gets alone and into a wrestling match with God.

What’s the biggest struggle we’re facing? Regardless of how big or bad it may be; the biggest one we have is with God. It all boils down to this, “Will we obey God and do the right thing, and will we trust God to handle it for us?”

The root of our problems is our struggle with who’s going to be God. And so, God allows crisis in our lives to bring us to that point where we finally get serious and alone with Him.

Over these next several devotionals, I’d like to share each phase of this process from the life of Jacob.