Do You Know My King?

In Matthew 16:18, Jesus said to Peter, "…upon this rock (meaning the Rock of Ages, the cross of Christ), I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it."

God spoke to Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, because he had prevailed with God after wrestling all the long night with God. He wouldn’t give up. It was a fight, it was a struggle that Jacob knew he had to fight. His only hope was in overcoming his own weakness and somehow convincing the Lord that he wanted to be set free from his life of deceitfulness and wanted a change. Jacob needed to be “reborn”, if you will, as a new man and this was his only chance, so he wouldn’t quit, he wouldn’t give up, until the Lord threw his hip out of joint to stop the wrestling match and granted Jacob what he wanted so badly.

Does that sound like the struggle that you and I have with serving the Lord? I believe that I can relate to Jacob’s battle. I fight with the flesh and I wrestle with the Word of the Lord. I try to overcome temptations and sometimes I fail. I’m not facing anything that many more have not faced before me. All of us are fighting this same battle.

But I hold on to the Lord with all my might, knowing that if I just hold on, I can’t lose because Jesus made a promise to me in 1 Corinthians 10:13 that, "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it."

After that struggle, when Jacob’s name was changed to Israel, God began to deal with him in a greater measure than ever before, just like He has done for all of us who have come through the battle at an altar before God. We fought every devil in hell to get to Jesus. We struggled with “self” at the altar and laid our “self” before God in repentance, seeking His forgiveness. At that old-fashioned altar is the only place where you can meet Jesus, make that struggle, and have your name changed forever.

I have a new name written down in Glory today and my name is recorded in the Book of Life because of that long, hard struggle at the altar with God.

Have you been through that struggle with God? Has your name been changed and written down in Glory? Praise the Lord if it has, but if you are still living a life dedicated to sin, you can have that name changed this morning. Already the struggle has begun. Satan doesn’t want you to win, but Jesus is stronger than the devil and if you want to be saved, nothing can stop you but yourself.

Your altar can be this little bench here in front of the sanctuary, or it can be by you own bedside, or a tree stump in the woods, but somewhere, at some time, that struggle will have to take place, or you will never enter Heaven’s gates as a Son of God like all of us will.

DO YOU KNOW MY KING THIS MORNING? DO YOU WANT TO KNOW HIM?

God gave Jacob, now named Israel, some great promises. Those same promises are to all of those who go through the struggles of life and who will know Jesus as their King, and Savior.