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Christianity Today, July, 2008 |

WRESTLING WITH ANGELS

Here's to All the Losers

Why defeat at the hands of God is magnificent.

Carolyn Arends | posted 7/16/2008 09:02AM

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As wrestling matches go, my laryngitis bout was barely a skirmish. I've had much tougher (and longer) fights, and I've got friends facing challenges I don't even want to imagine. In some cases (cancer, AIDS, and worse) I'm pretty sure the opponent is no angel of the Lord. But there is testimony among believers past and present that at the end (and only at the end) of the human rope is strength and peace beyond compare. Maybe that's what Jesus was getting at when he said the poor in spirit get the kingdom of heaven. With death on a cross looming on his horizon, he was intimately familiar with the victory that comes only through magnificent defeat.

I don't know that it ever feels good to have our own strength overcome. But if we want to be blessed, if we want to relocate from living in our own resources to resting in the middle of God's goodness, power, and provision, sometimes a little dislocation is necessary.

Just ask Jacob.

Related Elsewhere:

Arend's previous columns include:

The Grace of Wrath | Is there any story about God that isn't a love story? (May 12, 2008)

Carbonated Holiness | Laughter is serious business. (April 1, 2008)

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July 2008, Vol. 52, No. 7

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david

Posted: July 17, 2008 7:32 PM

I wish I knew something slick I could say in answer to some of these letters here (actually I don't care about being slick, just trusting God),except to say read Isa. 40:12-31 and take particular encouragement from vs. 27-31. When you feel so desparate and nothing seems to be happening, cry out to God anyway and don't let anyone just tell you to suck it up. Try to get with a Godly friend or 2 who will just stand with you;God can speak to you through prayerful people who love you; don't isolate-allow God to come to you not for the sake of your agenda or some pattern that He just has to answer to. He is the one who is sovereign, whom EVERYTHING is about and who gave his Son for you. Jesus felt that pain and as we are His, we share in that. Believe that He loves you-this is not always a mountain top experience-ask for grace and His peace in an immediate way;ask Him to help you understand His help. He is there for you; you will be OK and stronger for it. He is meeting you where you are.

TIMOTHY

Posted: July 17, 2008 2:26 PM

Stuff happens in life and it may not be your fault and it certainly might not be God's design. I contracted Meningitis ten years ago and I fortunately lived to tell about it however the Doctor's still have no idea how a person contracts that illness. I already had a healthy reverence for God and I already knew that my friends and family loved me so I really took very little from the experience at all. However I had a much smaller experience where I cut my foot with a weed trimmer and it got infected, I learned to wear my tennis shoes instead of my sandals after reading the safety warning on the box. Not every bad thing that happens to us in life is a revelation from God, not every bad thing in our life has purpose, and not every bad thing can be avoided by reading the instructions on the box first. Sometimes bad stuff happens without meaning, purpose, fault or design. However God can use everything to His Glory if it is in his will.

Christophe Mbilizi

Posted: July 17, 2008 9:48 AM

Hello, As an african poor, we are asking you a faver. people are doing the wrong things because they are not well informed about God willing over here, and they just open several churches but what they are doing are completly defferent from what they are doing out side. Would you please call some people and train ( teache) them how to keep chrestian spiritualy healthy... Kind Regards in Jesus name

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