When counseling or talking to people about life, I am often reminded that we need an abundance of grace AND willful obedience to see how our hearts and minds fight against the knowledge of God.
Rather than from outside influences, our tribulations are usually internal and a fight against what the Lord has revealed to us in his Word! We know what is right, but just don’t feel it at the moment.
Many times it is boredom that drives us to that place, or a feeling of “Gee, does anyone know I exist?”. This feeling in our hearts that arises is a refusal to listen… Pricked, mad, feeling like what has been revealed is contrary to what we know; we see the state of our heart and find ourselves in serious conflict.
I can’t help but think of Jacob wrestling with the Angel.
The awesome thing is that Jesus is not surprised at our weakness, and He has given us His Spirit to help us! Holy Spirit will strengthen us; make our hearts alive–bringing wisdom and understanding as we continue to seek His face, submitting to His leadership.
When we take responsibility for what the Holy Spirit reveals to us about our heart and obey regardless of the situation, or mood, our heart will follow.
Our heart WILL follow.
Allan Hood of IHOP-KC describes this as being tender before the Lord; having our hearts positioned to be an ‘easy on-ramp’ for the Holy Spirit. As we, like Jacob, wrestle with Him and the deep things of His word, may we know- more than ever–  He can be trusted with our hearts.
My prayer today is that I, we…all of us will just tap-out in the middle of the ring and say “yes” to his leadership, yes to his heart because He WILL NOT let us go until He has blessed us and brought us into maturity.
Until we see him face to face.