Getting Blessed In Midst Of Your Struggles

State Subject: Being Blessed in the Midst of your struggles.

Introduction: In life we all have struggles, regardless of who we are, whether we are young or old. No matter if we are male or female, black or white, in this life we all have struggles. In other words, we all have issues in our life that we wrestle with each day. Some of us had to wrestle this morning just to get out of bed. For some of us, it is a struggle each morning with what we are going to wear.

Some of us struggles with what we want to eat; and some of us even struggle with whether to eat or not. Some of us struggle with fear of failure. We struggle with right and wrong. You know church; some of us even struggle with where to go to church to worship the Lord. Some even struggle with whether to go to church at all. Yes my brothers and my sisters, life is full of struggles.

And you know church; struggles in life did not start with our generation for people have been struggling for a long time. For even the Apostle Paul said he had to struggle, for he said “what I do I do not understand, that I will to do, that I do not do, and that I hate; that I do. Paul said that the good he wanted to do that he did not do; and the evil that he did not want to do that he found himself doing.” In other words, Paul was saying that sometimes I want to go; but I find myself not going; and sometime I find myself wanting to stay; but I find myself going.

Church, I do believe we find ourselves struggling the same way sometime today, for there are times when some of us really want to go to church; but we find ourselves going to Wal-Mart instead.

Young folks, I realize that there is times when some of you really want to stay home and study but you find yourself going to places you know you should not go.

My sisters, I know that there are times when we want to visit the sick and shut in; but we find ourselves staying at home.

Stewards, there are times when we want to give but we find ourselves holding on to every dime.

Trustees, is it true that there are times when we want to build up; but we find ourselves tearing down?

What is it that makes us struggle so hard sometime? It is sin; and who is it that tempts us daily with sin? It is the devil for the Bible tells us that we do not wrestle with flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, who is the devil himself.

Yes church, on this Christian journey we are going to have many struggles; for the closer we try to walk with the Lord; the harder Satan will try all he can to detour us from reaching our goal.

However, today, we want to talk about being blessed in the midst of our struggles.

In our text this morning, we find a man name Jacob who was faced with many struggles as he grew to be the man God wanted him to be. For according to Scriptures Jacob even struggled with his twin brother Esau while still in his mother’s womb. And as the record reflects, Jacob struggled all through life.

The reason Jacob struggled so much is that God had a purpose for his life; for Jacob was the third link in God’s plan to start a nation from Abraham. However, Jacob being like so many of us this afternoon, even though God had a divine purpose for his life; Jacob wanted to live independent of that purpose and live the way he wanted to. And like many of us when faced with a struggle in life, he relied on his own resources rather than going to God for help. However, we learn from Jacob’s life that security does not lie in the accumulation of goods but from leaning and depending on God.

Another thing we also learn from studying Jacob’s life, is that anytime we try to live our life independent from the will of God we are going to be faced with some major struggles and in those struggles we are going to find our self all alone.

However, if we are living according to God’s purpose for our life we will find that at the most difficult time in our life the Lord will lift us up and carry us through. However, if we are going on our own, then we are on our own in our struggles of life.