Will You Pass the Final?

Chapter 33
A lot of people get really freaked out when finals week comes. Some people even have nightmares that they sleep too long in the morning and miss the final. Not many people enjoy tests which is too bad because we are tested all the time and if we could learn to enjoy the test we would be ever so much happier. 

God is testing us every day—sometimes not noticeably so, but sometimes the tests come hard and heavy and we feel like we will break under the pressure. He is not testing us to see what we are made of. He already knows what we are made of. No, he is testing us so that we can see what He is made of--so that we can see that His grace is sufficient for us. 

Do you remember Jacob from the Bible? He was the son of Isaac who was the son of Abraham. God made a covenant with Abraham and then he renewed that covenant with Isaac and then Jacob. But Jacob didn’t entirely trust God. He told God that if God kept all his promises to him to take care of him and prosper him and to bring him back to his own country, THEN he would put his trust in him. 

Jacob went to live with his uncle Laban and he married Leah and Rachel and had lot of kids and accumulated a ton of sheep. He stayed there for twenty years, and God kept every single one of his promises. But Jacob was not fully clinging to God yet. 

When Jacob finally decided to go back home after 20 years, he got news that Esau was coming to meet him. That scared him a little bit because the last time he saw Esau, Esau wanted to kill him. That night God came to Jacob in the form of a man—it was Jesus! Jacob wrestled him and he began to overpower Jesus. (Let me just say that Jesus was letting him do this just like your dad used to do when he played with you on the floor when you were little.) So Jesus touched Jacob’s hip which was extremely painful and took away Jacob’s strength. Jesus was about to walk away, but Jacob wouldn’t let him go. He kept clinging to Jesus and said he wouldn’t let go until Jesus blessed him. 

Jesus said that Jacob wrestled with God and  prevailed! To prevail means to win—to be the victor. How can a man have victory with God? Here is something to notice. When Jacob was wrestling with his full strength he was not the victor. He did not prevail because he was strong. He prevailed because he was clinging to Jesus! He prevailed in his weakness and it was only because he began to finally trust God completely that God gave him the victory and changed his name to Israel. Jacob’s pain never went away and he limped for the rest of life as a reminder of what God had done for him. 

God tests us in the same ways. Sometimes he brings great pain and suffering into our lives. He does this so that we will forget everything else and cling to him. There are some people who fail this test. They are the ones who get really mad at God and they say things like, “Why did you do this to me? I hate you!” They become bitter and hateful. But you won’t be like them. You will be like Jacob. When the pain in your life becomes so great that you feel like floods of grief are rushing over your head or that the fire will scorch you to death, you will hold on to Jesus. You will do that because a lot of very good people are praying for you every day, including Jesus Himself. God himself said this:

“Fear not, for I have redeemed you;
    I have called you by name, you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters, I will be with you;
    and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you;
when you walk through fire you shall not be burned,
    and the flame shall not consume you. ~Isaiah 43:1b-2.

You are greatly loved and you will prevail. “But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Corinthians 15:57) It's outrageous! It's scandalous! That He in His great mercy and love should give us the victory!  

Don’t worry about the final. When the test comes, just cling to Jesus.