Greg Laurie - Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Winning by Surrendering

Jacob named the place Peniel (which means "face of God"), for he said, "I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared." The sun was rising as Jacob left Peniel, and he was limping because of the injury to his hip.

—Genesis 32:30–31

The Bible tells the story of a man who had been sick for 38 years. He hung out by a body of water called the Pool of Bethesda, where there were many disabled people. Tradition said that periodically an angel would appear and stir up the waters, and the first person into the water would be healed.

One day Jesus showed up and asked this man an unusual question: “Do you want to be made well?” Now what kind of question is that to ask someone who’s been waiting years by a body of water that’s occasionally stirred by an angel?

It’s a very good question actually. Not everyone wants to change. You can go to an alcoholic and say, “Do you want to be free from alcohol?” Do you think everyone will say yes? No, not everyone will.

You can go to a person on drugs and say, “Do you really want to be free from drugs?” Or you can go to someone else and say, “Do you really want to be free from pornography?” Not everyone wants to change. Some people are comfortable right where they are, and they want to stay exactly where they are.

There has to come a moment in every believer’s life when he or she surrenders to God. It isn’t always easy, of course. Often God’s plans are plans that we love and agree with, but then sometimes God’s plans are different than ours. It is then that we have to say, as Jesus said in the Garden of Gethsemane,

“Not My will, but Yours, be done” (Luke 22:42 NKJV).
That’s what was happening in the life of Jacob when he wrestled with God. He went from resisting to resting and from cunning to clinging.

When we surrender to God, we ultimately win.