Transformation through Tribulation

“Lincoln wrote the greatest speech ever delivered in the English language, on the back of an envelope, a few moments before it was delivered, yet the thought back of that speech was borne of hardship and struggle.

“All down the road of life you will meet with obstacles, many of them. Failure will overtake you time after time, but remember that it is a part of Nature’’s method to place obstacles and failure in your way.

“Every time you master failure you become stronger and better prepared to meet the next one. The moments of trial will come to you as they come to all at one time or another. Doubt and lack of faith in yourself will cast their dark shadows over you, but remember that the manner in which you react under these trying negatives will indicate whether you are developing power or slipping backward.

“And this, too, will soon pass away.” Nothing is permanent, therefore why permit disappointment, resentment, or a keen sense of injustice to undermine your composure, because they will soon eliminate themselves.

“Look back over your past and you will see that those experiences of yesterday which bore heavily on your heart at the time, and seemed to end all hope of success, passed away and left you wiser than you were before.

“The whole universe is in a constant state of flux. You are in a constant state of change. Evolution is removing the wounds left in your heart by disappointment. You need not go down under any difficulty if you but bear in mind that ‘this, too, will soon pass away.’

“I looked back at my heavy load of grief and worry which crowded the happiness out of
my heart only yesterday, and lo! they had been transformed into stepping stones of
experience over which I had climbed higher and higher.”

Source: Napoleon Hill’’s Magazine. September, 1921. Volume 1, number 5, page 9.

In Genesis, in the Bible, there is an intriguing story of a man named Jacob. He was at a moment in his life when everything he had ever faced was suddenly coming down upon him. He was about to face an angry brother that might well want to kill him. At this moment he cries out to God for help. In his praying the Bible says that he literally wrestled with “a man.” Some believe it to be an angel, some believe it was the pre-incarnate presence of Jesus. Nevertheless, Jacob knew this was a supernatural moment and he refused to give up. Read what the Bible says in Genesis 32:24-28 (NIV),

“So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, ‘Let me go, for it is daybreak.’

“But Jacob replied, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’

“The man asked him, ‘What is your name?’

“‘Jacob,’ he answered.

“Then the man said, ‘Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome.’"

The real significance of this struggle can be missed here if we are not careful. This was more than a name change. It represented a transformation of a life. “Jacob” means deceiver or supplanter. “Israel” means literally “a prince with God.” Jacob had been a deceiver in his life, but he had come to the end of himself till now all the struggles, all the pain, all the disappointments had evolved in his life to this moment that he becomes “a prince with God.”

All of this to say that God wants to take the whole of your life... your failures and successes, your pain and problems, your disasters and disappointments, whatever you have experienced in life and use it to transform your life and character into something great and powerful. Don’t give up. Don’t let go. The key to Jacob’s victory was that he “struggled and prevailed.” Too many just struggle and give up too soon. Prevail!

Prayer: Lord Jesus, I do not ask to be delivered from my challenge. I only ask for the strength and courage to struggle and prevail. That is my prayer today. AMEN