Making Peace With God

Our Isolation

Often when we are alone, we are finally left with the chance to know God. We make ourselves so busy trying to achieve the things that we believe are necessary for being successful in the world that we don’t take the time to stop and just exist with God.

In my life, it is easy to recognize the business that surrounds me. Some of us, and this definitely includes myself, are so busy at times that we do not take the time to stop and find out what God has in store for our lives.

Thankfully, there are times where God intervenes in our lives and prevents us from going on our own way believing we have life figured out.

In my own story, being injured, isolated, and alone brought me the awareness I needed and the clarity of who God is and what He desires.

This does not mean I don’t struggle with how to balance being a kingdom disciple and live in the world at the same time.

We must seek God in the Silence

It is also easy to see the business that consumes our lives. In the times when it is difficult and where we are anxious, how many of us turn towards God to ask Him what the solution is for our lives?

The world’s goal is often to blind us to the peace that God has for our lives. Where, if we take the time to contemplate with God and struggle with Him whether it is our desires that we are pursuing or His we may realize what exactly God has in store for us.

You may be so consumed with achieving your career goals that you only make time for God when He fits into your busy schedule.

Or, you may be so consumed with being a parent that your worries and fears are for your children instead of with God.

Possibly, it is your hobbies that consume your life and you have not yet wrestled with God for the truth of who you are in His will.

Wrestling with God

God provides the opportunities for those who seek Him to really understand what is in store for their lives. In the life of Jacob, the time came where he was faced with a choice. It was in the time of his isolation and he struggled with God.

Genesis 32:24 NASB95

Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.

The foreshadowing of the coming of the dawn is interesting here as we look forward to the time when the night ends and the day breaks. There will come a time when each one of us must recognize the

Genesis 32:25 NASB95

When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh; so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him.

Genesis 32:26 NASB95

Then he said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” But he said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

Genesis 32:27 NASB95

So he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.”

Genesis 32:28 NASB95

He said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.”

Genesis 32:29 NASB95

Then Jacob asked him and said, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And he blessed him there.

Genesis 32:30 NASB95

So Jacob named the place Peniel, for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved.”

Genesis 32:31 NASB95

Now the sun rose upon him just as he crossed over Penuel, and he was limping on his thigh.

Genesis 32:32 NASB95

Therefore, to this day the sons of Israel do not eat the sinew of the hip which is on the socket of the thigh, because he touched the socket of Jacob’s thigh in the sinew of the hip.

Darkness may surround us, but God is coming

Looking around the world it is easy to witness the consumption that people surround themselves with. Instead of contemplating who God is and struggling with the truth of their lives, you may surround yourself with the things that are not of the kingdom of God.

Struggle, strife, tension, anxiety are all opposite of the peace that God has for the world.

When you surround yourself with the attempts at accumulating wealth for your family, this is a worldly struggle.

When your struggle is more with the sustenance that you want, this is a worldly struggle.

These are also the wrestlings that Jacob had.

Find those in your life where you have struggled to realize where you have been existing for worldly accomplishments instead of working as a disciple in the kingdom of God.

God does not leave us alone in these struggles and meets us to wrestle away the worldly desires and struggles we bring upon ourselves.

God’s love for us allows the struggle

God is all powerful and accomplishes whatever He desires. The beauty in humanity is that He has created us that has free will. This presents the opportunity for the wrestling with God to exist.

When you decide to do your own will instead of God’s, God does not leave you alone. He pursues you until you recognize He is there to wrestle with you.

Recognition of who God is occurred to Jacob. Once He recognized with whom he was wrestling, he had an opportunity. He asked to be blessed. Along with the blessing he received, he also received the injury.

Hopefully, the injury allowed Jacob to recognize his humanity and that he was not able to accomplish on his own the things God wanted from him.

In your life, where have you come to the realization that God wrestles with you.

First, God wrestles with your belief.

2 Peter 3:9 NASB95

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.

Be reminded that Jacob was only the third generation which had been pulled out of the world. His family’s wrestling with God had been going on for awhile but there is the individual wrestling which must occur within each one of us.

There are those who believe they are okay based upon the prayers of another. God desires the broken hearted person to realize it is only through God that we are sustained.

Peace is brought in the Silence

1 Kings 19:11 NASB95

So He said, “Go forth and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord was passing by! And a great and strong wind was rending the mountains and breaking in pieces the rocks before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.

1 Kings 19:12 NASB95

After the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of a gentle blowing.

1 Kings 19:13 NASB95

When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold, a voice came to him and said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”

Just as Jacob met God in his isolation waiting on his fears to subside, Elijah too was fearful for his life and was able to seek God in the whisper of the wind.

Personal private prayer is the opportunity to reach out and struggle with God

Before you make peace with the world, you must make peace with God. After you realize that His will is the only will that will extend eternally, it becomes easier to recognize how to yield yourself to that.

This is a struggle for most. We know that our time is short and we want to make the most of it and provide for our families.

Jacob was doing the same. He was acquiring wealth for his family so they would not struggle. But he yielded to God’s desire for him to travel away from Laban and return to his family.

Finding the time for isolation came in between Jacob’s busy life.

Hopefully, you too find the opportunity to wrestle with God.

Prayerfully, you wrestle to the point of being able to witness truly who God is.

Take the opportunity to reach out to God.

He is always there patiently desiring to speak with you.

Making Peace with God is the first step in making peace with the world.