Recover Your Determination Series

Introduction

The theme of this month has been Recovery. Recovery of our way back to God when we have wandered far. Recovery of hope in the midst of significant health battles. Recovery of faith as Sarah teaches us that when it seems there is no way, God makes a way. Recover your determination. Jacob’s story is a great place to spend some time talking about recovering our determination to follow God. 

Genesis 32 - Jacob is appealing to God when he doesn’t have it in himself to keep going. Corrine Carvalho summarizes, “In Genesis, Jacob is repeatedly depicted as a schemer. He convinces his brother to sell him his right to inherit as the eldest son (25:29-34), and with the help of his mother, he tricks his father into giving him his brother’s blessing (27:1-40). He tricks Laban, his father-in-law, in order to receive the wages he had earned (30:37-43). These manipulations left him estranged from his family. As this story opens, Jacob has brought his large family back to this ancestral land, but he fears that his brother is seeking revenge. Jacob leaves his family to face his brother alone.”

Jacob has made a mess of his life. Wealthy, but having shredded his relationships to pieces. Fearful that Esau would hunt him down and kill him. Afraid that his father-in-law would kill him after he dealt deceptively with him. He had been deceived/deceived others- he earned his name. Jacob means deceiver.  Today we notice four keys to determination.

1. Determine to Trust God’s Promise

Genesis 32:9 Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord, you said to me, ‘Return to your land and to your relatives and I will make you prosper.’

This is Jacob’s admission that he’s run out of steam. His own plans and schemes have failed him. The first step in AA’s well-known approach is the admission that we need recovery in our lives: “We admitted we were powerless over alcohol—that our lives had become unmanageable.” 

Romans 7:18 “For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do the good, but I cannot do it.”

There is no road to recovery without this admission. You can substitute your struggle for the word alcohol if that is not your fight - but we all have a fight. Determination is not about our power, but a higher power - the

power of God who can keep every promise.

2. Determine to Trust God’s Rescue

Genesis 32:10-11 I am not worthy of all the faithful love you have shown your servant. With only my walking stick I crossed the Jordan, but now I have become two camps. Rescue me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, as well as the mothers with their children.

Jacob realizes that nothing he has done has panned out like he planned it. Now he is two camps - He is about to send all of his family and flocks to the other side of the river, and he is alone. He has been so full of himself.  He is unworthy of God’s kindness.

Psalm 13:2 How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and day after day have sorrow in my heart?

We all have to come to the point of recognizing our unworthiness of all that God has done for us. Jacob acknowledges need of God’s rescue. All of us have made choices that resulted in messes that were hard on ourselves and others. Will God rescue us from these troubles?

It’s not hard to make a mess of things in our lives. Bad financial decisions, unhappy family decisions, numbing the pain with a variety of substances or actions; reactions to some of the problems in life we face. Ultimately we have to look up to God for hope and lean in. 

Romans 12:1 “Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice—alive, holy, and pleasing to God—which is your reasonable service.”

3. Determine to Trust God’s Blessing

Genesis 32:24-30 So Jacob was left alone. Then a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When the man saw that he could not defeat Jacob, he struck the socket of his hip so the socket of Jacob’s hip was dislocated while he wrestled with him. Then the man said, “Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.” “I will not let you go,” Jacob replied, “unless you bless me.” The man asked him, “What is your name?” He answered, “Jacob.” “No longer will your name be Jacob,” the man told him, “but Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have prevailed.” Then Jacob asked, “Please tell me your name.” “Why do you ask my name?” the man replied. Then he blessed Jacob there. So Jacob named the place Peniel, explaining, “Certainly I have seen God face to face and have survived.”

A mysterious story - wrestling with God! But this is what recovery is - it is seeking God’s blessing as we struggle. This story seems to me about redeeming Jacob - represented by giving him a new name. As the sixth step says, “We are entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.”