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Words of Truth
In Jeremiah 23:13 God told the people of Israel, “You will seek me and find Me. When you seek Me with all your heart.” And in Genesis 32:26 we read: “then He said: let Me go, for the day has broken, but Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me – and in Exodus 33:13-14 God said to Moses, “My presence will go with you – and I will give you rest.”
Prayers of Importunity
God delights in His children’s’ prayers, especially those of importunity… I beg You; I beseech You; I implore You; please Lord, I entreat You.. God loves the grace of pertinacity, where His child’s determined, persistent, tenacious, resolute perseverance.. continues to plead the delights of His heart.
Subtle Distinction
There’s a fine line between gracious entreaties, and a determination to have one’s own way.. just as there can be a fine line between pride and true humility.. and a subtle distinction between self-elevation and the lifting up of the Lord Jesus. Both self-determination and sins of arrogance point to me and not to Christ.
Self or Christ
And each blood-bought saint would do well to engage in deep introspection. Each wise believer needs to search out the ruinous sins that lurk deep within one’s own heart. But the repeated entreaties connected with the prayer of importunity are far removed from an insisting on one’s own way. They are the deep implorings for God’s promised benefits. This is not the believer demanding some “thing“, but an intense desire to receive from Him – His committed blessing.
Christ-Centred
God wants men and women of prayer and faith, to seek more of Him. Men and women who would cry out with John the Baptist as he recognises the Lamb of God.. I must decrease and He must increase. John 3:30. Who after the long night of sorrow insists with Jacob at the break of day. I will not let you go, unless you bless me, Genesis 32:26
Love Relationship
God wants men and women who ache for more of Him. God wants men and women who pant for Him.. as a deer pants for the watering hole. God wants men and women whose hearts turn away from My-Self to the Him-Self. God wants men and women who long for a more intimate love relationship with Himself – who love Him with a deeper, purer love.
Waiting Test
God will often test our desire and entreaties by causing us to wait and wait and wait….. and wait. God will sometimes wrestle with us through the night of doubt and sorrow – to prove that such gifts are given to the one who seeks Him with all their heart. As He said to Jeremiah.. you WILL find me if you search for me with ALL your heart….” Jeremiah 29:13. God will sift our very motives as He searches the thoughts of our hearts.. until our earnest request is sanctified to meet with His pure plans and purposes. So that at the appointed time His delayed gift will come – and it will come at our best time: for our times are in His hands Psalm 31:15 and it is God Who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Philippians 2:13
Prevailing Prayer
“I will not let you go unless you bless me,” he said, but God wrestled with Jacob much more than Jacob wrestled with Him. And God prevailed while Jacob fell.. his thigh dislocated; his pride shattered; his ego broken. But Jacob clung on until the break of day – until the blessing came. And Jacob, the strong, resolute, proud, arrogant, scheming Jacob.. limped from his encounter with God – a weak and broken and humbled man. And ONLY then, after having been crushed beneath the Hand of the Almighty.. only then was he told:- your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.” Genesis 32:28
Jacob to Israel
So Jacob moved from being a proud heel-snatcher to being a gracious prince with God – from being earthly Jacob to heavenly Israel; from a natural to a supernatural. Remember, true prayers of importunity, which wrestle with God for His blessing, will indeed transform the man or woman who seeks Him with all their heart. But such a transformation in the life of any terrestrial Jacob.. must first be broken and crushed beneath His searching gaze, in order to produce God’s best – a celestial Israel.
Crisis Point
After days, months and even years of such wrestling, He will bring you to that crisis point. If He does call you to your utmost for His highest, you must first be broken in every area of your self-life. And when all else has failed – only then will He answer your prayers of importunity. Cease from your own strength, beloved child of God. Terminate your own developed wisdom. Crucify any prideful extravagances and surrender to Him in thought and word and deed.. and motive – until Christ be formed in you. God knows how to lead you to your own Calvary crisis. God knows how to guide you through it as well.
Darling Quest
But there are some that fall at the last hurdle. Discouragement sets in and the wrestling prayer of entreaty, fails to persist.. just at the point that God is watching to see how earnestly you desire Him.. how much you long for Him.. how dearly you desire His blessing – how earnestly you seek His very Presence. Just at that point – so many give up their darling quest. Continue to hold on to the skirts of the Almighty. Persevere and besiege His throne of grace.
Dying to Self
Cast yourself helplessly at His feet. Die to your own strength, your own wisdom. Die to your own achievements, your own charisma. Die to your own self-interest, your own magnetism – and in humility and grace, rest in His strength and in Him alone. And remember, He takes away the first, that He may establish the second. Replace the mountain of wood, hay, and stubble of your own-sufficiency, with the cherished gold, silver and precious stones of His All- Sufficiency. It was Paul who put it into words when he cried: my little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you! Galatians 4:19
At Thy feet I fall
Yield to Thee my ALL
To SUFFER, LIVE or DIE
For my Lord, crucified
Bible References
13 And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused my people Israel to err.
26 And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
13 Now therefore, I pray thee, if I have found grace in thy sight, shew me now thy way, that I may know thee, that I may find grace in thy sight: and consider that this nation is thy people.
14 And he said, My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.
30 He must increase, but I must decrease.
26 And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.
27 And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he said, Jacob.
28 And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
15 My times are in thy hand: deliver me from the hand of mine enemies, and from them that persecute me.
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.
19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,
1 Peter 2
2 Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings,
2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
3 If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious.
4 To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,
5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
6 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.
7 Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,
8 And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;
10 Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
12 Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation.
13 Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme;
14 Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.
15 For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:
16 As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God.
17 Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.
18 Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.
19 For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.
20 For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.
21 For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:
22 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:
23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously:
24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.
25 For ye were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.
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