Holding On to God When Life Feels Messy and Unclear
...“Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel;
for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.”
Genesis 32:28
“When God is doing a deep work, there is a lot you can’t explain. There’s a knowing yet no plan. There’s unshakable hope yet endless tears. There’s gratitude while learning grit. You don’t know what comes next, but you do know this: Whatever He is doing, you’ll never be the same.”
I wrote those words in the middle of a season that felt impossible. I felt God calling me away from a job I loved, yet I had no idea what came next. In the days after, I felt stuck and painfully uncertain. I held on to God with all I had, but His plans seemed hidden. I craved clarity, but all I had was the faint sense that He was still at work - despite my panicked heart.
Maybe you’re in your own in-between season where God’s plan feels hard to grasp. And yet you’re determined to hold on to Him. These are the moments when we wrestle with Him.
When you wrestle with someone, it’s up close and personal. It’s messy and exhausting and demands all you have.
Consider the way God came to wrestle Jacob in Genesis 32. Jacob found himself stuck between leaving his past and stepping into God’s call for his future. God could have intervened in any way, but He chose to wrestle. For Jacob, this was an act of clinging to the One he struggled with while releasing the outcomes he had tried to control his whole life.
Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?
But the wrestling itself wasn’t the point. After a long night of grappling, Jacob demanded a blessing - and God gave it to him: “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel;
for you have struggled with God and with men, and have prevailed.” (Genesis 32:28).
When the struggle ended, Jacob walked away with a limp but also with a new identity. Jacob wanted God to remove the challenge, but God wanted him to be changed.
Your wrestling isn’t wasted. Like Jacob, your struggle will mark you - not with defeat but with God’s transforming work. I know this because I’ve lived it.
The season that once left me feeling lost and unsure was the very place where God met me. I didn’t get the clarity I wanted, but I got something I needed: a deeper trust in Him. The wrestling was never about where I was going; it was about who I was becoming.
You may not know what comes next, but you can trust this: God’s not just working on your circumstances. He’s also working on you. Your struggle isn’t proof of God’s absence but a sign of His nearness. Hold on! When you come through this, you’ll see you were never alone.
Lord, I believe I’m in a season of wrestling, and I don’t understand what You’re doing. Help me to hold on to You, even when it’s hard. Change me through this process, and remind me that Your work in me is always good. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
- Ashley Morgan Jackson
Provided by "Proverbs 31 Ministries"
Q&A: What Does It Mean That Christians are Not of This World?
The phrase not of this
world is found in John 18:36 where Jesus says that His kingdom is “not of this
world.” The context of Jesus’ statement is His interrogation by Pontius Pilate
during one of His trials. Pilate had summoned Jesus into the palace and, in
trying to ascertain the charges against Him, basically asked Jesus to
incriminate Himself. The conversation went like this:
Pilate asked, “Are you
the king of the Jews?”
Jesus responded with a question of His own: “Is that
your own idea, or did others talk to you about me?” “Am I a Jew?”
Pilate
replied. “Your own people and chief priests handed you over to me. What is it
you have done?”
Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my
servants would fight to prevent my arrest by the Jewish leaders. But now my
kingdom is from another place.”
“You are a king, then!” said Pilate.
Jesus
answered, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came
into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth
listens to me” (John 18:33–37).
When Pilate asked Jesus if He was a king,
Pilate was thinking of a political position and that Jesus was possibly guilty
of sedition against Caesar. In saying that His kingdom is “not of this world,”
Jesus denied that He was a king in that sense - and His words were proved by
the lack of any subjects fighting to release Him (John 18:36).
But Jesus does
not deny His kingship wholly; He has a kingdom, but it is “from another place”
(John 18:36). He says He had “come into the world” (John 18:37), with the clear
implication that He was from some place other than this world (John 3:3). His
kingdom is heavenly and extends over the hearts and minds of His subjects. It
does not originate in this world: “His royal power and state are not furnished
by earthly force, or fleshly ordinances, or physical energies, or material
wealth, or imperial armies”.
As His followers, Christians are members of His
kingdom, which is “not of this world.” We know that “our citizenship is in
heaven” (Philippians 3:20). As a result, we “put aside the deeds of darkness
and put on the armor of light” (Romans 13:12). We wage spiritual battle, but
“the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world” (2 Corinthians
10:4). We “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). And we
rest in the knowledge that our King gives us eternal life: “The world and its
desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever” (1 John
2:17).
We are on earth for now, but our earthly lives are nothing but a vapor in
comparison to eternity (James 4:14). “This world in its present form is passing
away” (1 Corinthians 7:31). The sufferings and trials of this world are part of
life. But, in remembering that we are “not of this world,” we know that such
things are just for a little while (1 Peter 5:10). The knowledge that we are
not of this world gives Christians hope even in the darkest times (1 Peter 1:6–9). This broken place is not where we ultimately belong, and it is not where
we will stay (Hebrews 13:14). “We are receiving a kingdom that cannot be
shaken” (Hebrews 12:28).
Christians, as part of Jesus’ kingdom, are not of this
world. We have been adopted as heirs of heaven by God Himself, and that is
where our citizenship is (Titus 3:7). Until our King returns, we wait (Titus
2:13), and we hope (Romans 5:5), and we do what we can to bring others into the
“not of this world” relationship with Jesus Christ.
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Provided by "Got Questions Ministries"
