You’ve seen the pattern before. First God gives you a strength. So you learn to make full use of it. You get used to it. You polish it. You begin to count on it. Then God has to wean you off it.
Take Jacob, old heel grabber, aka the deceiver. He survived all his life by his wits. He was a master con-man. Perhaps he learnt it from mum. Whatever. He was good at it. There were times when he had a taste of his own medicine. But he didn’t know any other way to live. Trust in God? Sounds too spiritual. Too holy-moley. You had to hedge your bets. Of course you prayed from time to time. But if push came to shove you depended on number one. I don’t know about you but Jacob sounds like many of us. He sounds like me.
How could such a guy be the father of Israel? Indeed to carry the very name Israel? He couldn’t. Till he was broken. Hence the wrestling bout with the divine recorded for us in Genesis 32: 22-32.
Now Jacob was a tough opponent. His divine opponent couldn’t defeat him. God had to play rough. Out of love. Jacob had to learn to trust God. So God had to put Jacob’s hip out of joint.
In his pain and helplessness Jacob learns the most important lessons of life. He saw himself as he really was – a Jacob, a heel-grabber, a deceiver. He cries out for a blessing from God. No more schemes. No smooth words. He just hung on for dear life.
That was Jacob’s turning point. In his moment of pain, defeat, and helplessness, he gets to see God face to face. And discovers his destiny.
Ironic isn’t it. Most of us are running away from pain, defeat, and helplessness. We want to remain in control. We want to operate out of our strengths. Then God throws us a few curve balls.
Perhaps you are undergoing through a tough patch right now. You wonder what the heck has happened. Why on earth has God allowed you to wander so very, very far from your comfort zone. You are tired. You have no answers. You are just hanging on.
Which may be exactly where God wants you. So that He can reveal Himself you. So that He can bless you. So that you can finally begin to be who you were meant to be.
Maybe there is some truth in the old adage after all. Never trust a leader who doesn’t walk with a limp.