Get a Grip
For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” Romans 8:14-15 NASB
Received – Do you want what God has to offer you? Are you willing to do whatever is required to experience His presence in your life? Then you need lambano, the Greek verb translated “receive.” But in order to receive this gift, you must also employ the other meaning of lambano, that is, “to take.” God’s gift is not a passive acceptance. It is an active taking. To receive is to seize what is freely offered. It is to grasp God, to hang on for dear life (because there is no other life). Anyone who holds the gift of God loosely in hand is more than likely to find it slipping away. When we become aware that our power to grab ahold is fading, we must squeeze all the harder. We must become Jacob at the brook, unwilling to let go even in defeat. “I will not let go. I will not let go. To my last ounce of strength, I will grip You as hard as I can.”
The problem, and it is the only problem, is that the yetzer ha’ra, that powerful (!) energy toward self-determination outside of the sovereignty of God, will cunningly seduce us. We will think that because God desires so much to give us this gift of a life led by the Spirit that He will override our well-trained disobedience and cause us to take His offer. This is the underlying view of the hard line Calvinist. God chooses. We have nothing to say in the matter. But this is not what I find in the Bible. What I find is a God who woos us, who loves us beyond measure, who gracefully exhorts us to return to Him, and promises to lift us from the bondage of slavery inflicted upon us by our own cravings. What I find is a God who patiently waits, turning the tide so that we are confronted again and again with His favor but who will not violate the sovereignty of our choices. That is the purpose of creating agents like Him. To choose. Not once, but again and again. To choose to never let go. To come back. To return, even from deliberate disregard. This is a God who agonizes over every one of us who has been seduced by our own fantasy.
As long as you don’t give up, neither will He. In fact, He will never give up even if you think you have. We must turn the handle of the vise, turning lambano into katalambano, the emphatic extension of “to take” into “to seize.”
To be led by the Spirit. There is no other life than this. All the rest is flight of impulse. Remember that existence without the Spirit is death, the unconscious escape from the presence of the Father, the loss of any sense of worthiness, the psychological void of destructive madness. In the end, it isn’t sin that will destroy me. It is emptiness. It is the hell of being alone in a world without resurrection.
Get a grip. Be injured if that’s what it takes. But do not let go. Cry out, “Abba, Father” until He pulls you to Him.
Topical Index: receive, lambano, take, katalambano, Romans 8:14-15
Sounds like Free Will. I am continually humbled that the God of the universe pursues me, and it is with a grateful heart that I choose Him
As I read and contemplated the Torah portion this morning about Jacob, I was prompted to ask: When did Jacob model faith? In looking at Hebrews chapter 11, it is not until on his deathbed in the giving of the blessing to his grandson’s! With Skip’s challenge today, I get at least a partial sense of what Jacob was wrestling with at the brook–he just did not want to concede giving up himself and trusting YHVH. Much like me. I must step up and be an active receiver of His plans for me rather than passively expecting Him to impose His purpose on my flawed plans.
“It is to grasp God, to hang on for dear life (because there is no other life)”…
I grew up in a home (2 homes, actually) based on/filled with all sorts of abuses. I was about 6 yoa and hiding in a linen closet when I heard God’s Voice clearly, calmly, lovingly say to me that I was His and He was my Dad, my Protector, the One Whom I should continue to cling to for dear life… because the insanity I was living in was no life at all.
Thank you, Skip, for your perfect way of describing my relationship with and experience with YHVH. Today started as a hard one (living with “post-concussion syndrome” along with my [seemingly] zillions of other physical challenges.) Now, with your perfect blanket of soothing, reassuring, powerful words, I will experience shalom on this beautiful Sabbath.
You nailed it, Skip. Jacob has long been an interesting, if not, painful education in life. The conflicts of life began even before birth..but though Esau was physically stronger – God gifted the smaller Jacob with the ability to supplant. Whatever would come against him – God would give him the victory. I do not believe, however, that Jacob’s intentions with the “starving” Esau was devious and calculating. (No need to be so stiff and religious all the time!) Looking at the encounter with a Mom’s eyes I see two brothers sparring with good humor….but that is just the way I see it. As a Mom, Rebecca most likely DID hear God’s Word over her children. Esau was strong and MANLY – doing all the MANLY stuff….Jacob, on the other hand was not so inclined. Evidently, his mental abilities were his skill and gifting. Now I will speak totally out of a mother’s heart – sans any historical fact. Maybe….Jacob felt, “less than” his brother…maybe Rebecca, as mothers do..whispered words of encouragement to bolster what she knew to be God’s Word over his life. It’s what Mom’s do for all her children…or should. I don’t think it’s fair for “theologians” to assume she was sinister and devious. (I’m determined not to “go off” into another sermon on mens shameless attitude re: women..grrr-sigh.) When she put Jacob in front of his father in place of Esau I DON’T believe it was done in a sinister attitude (again….grrr-sigh) I believe she responded as God intends a woman to respond-saving Issac from not hearing God’s intention and causing more problems. Could it have been accomplished in a different way? Probably, but this is how it went down. (Please, let’s not get into all those ramifications in relationship to God – He’s dealing with humans-sometimes He’s the only One who understands how the heck He deals with us about something. I’m good with trusting Him to be GOOD-all the time!) Back to Jacob.
“Things” didn’t get any better for him as far as trusting people to do the right thing-and I think this is where our own lives begin to really see some Light.
He was lied to and cheated again and again. What does that do to us when our own life is filled with an experiential distrust like that? If it’s hard to trust people you can SEE – how can you trust God you CANNOT SEE? Ever notice that people who are wounded and unable to trust need to “pin down” any and every detail of something in order to make it more reliable? The trouble is…you won’t ever REALLY “pin down” God….personally, I think it makes Him smile when we try. No one but God understands exactly what we are thinking and, more importantly, WHY we are thinking in that way. He sees, and I believe, actually FEELS – every disappointment, every slight, every hurt, every pang of bitterness and woundedness that brings us to that place of wanting to wrestle with God’s Love for us. He UNDERSTANDS OUR HEARTS COMPLETELY AND LOVES US IN THE MIDST OF OUR CONFUSION AND PAIN – ALWAYS SEEKING TO BRING US TO A PLACE OF RESTING IN HIS GREAT LOVE-and never needing to wrestle again. It’s my own fanciful interpretation, of course, but I believe when God came to Jacob that night before meeting Esau…He came to hold him and comfort him…but given Jacob’s experiences….it only led to a wrestling match. Jacob KNEW God is suppose to be good BUT – let’s be clear here!!!
God IS Love – not like human love – it is a Love we can’t even begin to fathom. At a time in my own life of total despair and disappointment with no person or place that understood or had an answer…..He spoke, very clearly to my heart, “Marsha, come up here in My Lap…it’s okay…crawl up here. I promise you….you can tell Me anything and everything about how you feel about Me or anyone else. You can even yell in My Face if you need to…I understand. All I ask is you do it in My Lap – don’t run away and do it.” I did that…more than once my kids walked in to find Mom curled up on the couch like it was someone’s lap….Mom’s are weird. But you know what…as I got all of the things said I needed to say and began to quiet down…..I could hear His Heartbeat.
I love this.
For all the times i was curled up in a ball, after having been verbally attacked by the person who was supposed to have been a protector, silently focusing on the words “I know you are there, i know you care”….for all the times i have been unable to cry out, unable to pray.
To believe his grip is firmly in place. To rely on his grip, when i had none.
“It isn’t sin that will destroy me but emptiness.” My wife recently told our 3-year-old grand-daughter to get a grip, to which she replied, I don’t want to get a grip. I have often thought of that response in terms of my own life and choices. Though not a terrorist, extremist, swindler, there are sins I do wrestle with and at times don’t want to get a grip on YHVH either. I know the Universliasts and Progressives seem to offer a faith at no demand on one, but the result seems further emptiness and license to do as I darn well please. One is happiest when living for that which they were created, in the will of Almighty YHVH. Thanks Skip and thanks to this community as I long for like-minded fellowship with other believers who are “getting a grip”.
David Russell