01-18-2022 Wrestling with God

I was challenged and blessed by this article by Executive Director of SBC Virginia.  He has given me permission to share it.

Wrestling with God  from the desk of Brian Autry

A little-known fact about me is that I was a wrestler in high school. The coach personally recruited me. My parents supportively bought me wrestling shoes. I went to weight training and practice. If you know me, you are probably wondering – “man, Brian doesn’t really strike me as a former wrestler.” Before I try to offer any protest, the reality is I only stayed on the team a week or two. Now, I don’t think of myself as a quitter, but in this case, I quit. It didn’t take long for me to determine that this sport was not for me.

I often remember with some humor that episode from my freshman high school year when I read Genesis 32. This past week, as I was reading through Genesis, I came to the episode of Jacob wrestling with God. As we keep pressing on advancing the Gospel of Jesus Christ together, I’d like to share a few lessons we learn about God from Jacob’s wrestling:

1. The Lord is strong but gentle. The Lord wrestles with him until breaking of day without killing him in the first second.
2. The Lord is patient. All night long, 8-12 hours of wrestling. The Lord doesn’t say “get off me in five minutes.”
3. The Lord is resolved. The Lord determined to see Jacob come to the end of himself.
4. The Lord is powerful. He just had to touch him to put his hip out of joint.
5. The Lord is generous. Genesis 32:29 – He blessed him.

Alistair Begg preached a sermon on Genesis 32 that I pulled up to listen to this week as I was pondering this Bible passage. He talks about the place of God’s blessing. He says the place of God’s blessing is (1) a place of crippling, (2) a place of clinging, (3) a place of confession, (4) a place of consecration. Wow! I like that!

Keep Pressing On!

Your brother in Christ,

BRIAN AUTRY
Executive Director
SBC of Virginia