Truth Archive

In Genesis 25, it tells us that Rebecca conceived and the children struggled within her and she said, “If it be so, why am I thus?” She went to enquire of the Lord and the Lord said to her, “Two nations are in thy womb.” It was the struggle that I thought of and sometimes we wonder why there is the struggle.

There is another verse in Galatians 5:17 says that the flesh lusteth (which means that it longs for) that which is against the spirit and the spirit lusteth, or longs for, that which is against the flesh. It says also that the two are at enmity, or they are antagonistic towards one another. This is the struggle.

We have heard it mentioned in these meetings about the struggle. We heard it this morning and we have heard it in the testimonies. The struggle, why the struggle? So maybe this afternoon we could just think a little about the struggle and the cost in every life because there is a “conflict fierce and keen and every day a battle fought unseen and each kingdom has its Jordan in between.” The struggle.

We sang earlier in that hymn, “Though I have fallen often in the struggle, I trust the rock that higher is than I.” This cunning, cruel nature is struggling. In the life of every child of God, there are two natures. There is the flesh and there is the spirit and that’s the struggle. Each is desiring and seeking to have pre-eminence, to have control. I wonder if you ever feel about something, “l like it” or “l don’t like it?” or “I want to” or “I don’t want to? or “I’m happy but I’m not happy?” or “I’m willing but I’m not willing?” or “Yes and no and I will and I won’t?” The two natures. The struggle. If you have some of these feelings at times then I just want to tell you that you’re quite normal. In every life of every child of God, there are the two natures and there is the conflict because the two are contrary one to another.They are at enmity and they cannot agree.

Sometimes we say, “I have tried,” but I really haven’t tried and will you obey? Yes and no. The struggle.

Jesus told Peter, “You will remember there in the Garden,” where it is recorded in Matthew 27, He said, “The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” However, Jesus saw beyond the weak flesh to the willing spirit. So here we read those verses where Rebecca was feeling the struggle of the two nations within her. Rebecca was raised in idolatry, idol worship, and that servant of Abraham came there seeking a bride for lsaac. There in Genesis 24:58, “Will you go with this man?” She said, ”I will go.” Was that when she gave her heart to God? I do not know. She couldn’t have understood very much but she made a decision to leave behind the idol worship. She couldn’t have understood much about true worship or about being a child of God in God’s true way, but her understanding grew as the time passed. Oftentimes when people begin in God’s way, they don’t understand very much but they are ready to leave behind the old way. They are wanting something better and little by little, their understanding grows. Here in these verses Rebecca was learning something more about God’s Way, about salvation, and about God’s work, and she was learning about the struggle.

Later we read about the matter when Esau sold his birthright and that Jacob received the blessing. It seemed there that Rebecca had a better understanding of the will of God, the plan of God, than Isaac did. Her understanding had grown. So there is the struggle and we would wonder why. God has blessed us when He made us His child and brought us into His family, so why am I thus? Why is it like this? There is this inner-conflict with these feelings, “I am content” and yet, “l am not content.” The conflict and the struggle.

So we have these feelings and I think you do, and when you do, I just want to say, “Don’t let it trouble you much because it is normal.” That is the way it is and if the struggle isn’t there then there’s something wrong. Sometimes we see the struggle in others and God has placed us together walking in this way so that we can be a help to one another so that we can encourage one another and that we can understand one another. We need wisdom in dealing with a brother or sister, dealing with a mate, a friend or a companion, and sometimes with strangers, when we see them in the struggle. Sometimes we see them fall and we need good judgement. We need wisdom from God. You know, there has never been a fish that has been caught in a net without a struggle and if it was, then it was a dead fish. Unless the struggle is there, then there is something wrong. The struggle is a sign of life and if there’s no struggle then there’s no life. So I appreciate seeing the struggles in others and it encourages me to also keep up the struggle. When I see the struggle then I know that they have life. The greatest struggle is with ourselves and we don’t really understand our own struggle and we cannot understand the struggle of another. When we get to understand our own struggle, only then can we understand when we see others in the struggle and we don’t feel that we really have very much to say. We heard at one of the other conventions that it is a human weakness to talk about the struggle of others. So I was reading about Moses and it seemed that Moses had a struggle with the two natures.

He was in Egypt and he was in the king’s palace but he was an lsraelite. There in the king’s palace, there was the flesh and there was the spirit so which would he obey? All the riches of Egypt were at his disposal. He lived in the same time era as king Tutankhamen and all the gold and treasures that they found in his tomb showed what it was like when he dwelt there in the king’s palace. There was the struggle and he realised that all of those things are only for a season if the flesh prevailed. So he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season. So there was the struggle, and the spirit prevailed. You know, Moses became the meekest man on earth and he knew God face to face. When he was gone, God said, “Moses, My servant, is dead.“ God’s best people have had the struggle. Even the best have had it and we can’t escape it either.

Asaph had it in the 73rd Psalm where he was having the struggle and he was sharing with us his experience of the struggle. He was envious of the foolish. There were the two natures. There was that in him that was looking at the foolish and he said that they were not in any trouble and he said that they are not plagued and they prosper in the world and that was his struggle. The flesh was crying out and it was saying, “All day long, I have been plagued and chastened every morning.“ So what helped him in the struggle? It says that he went into the sanctuary and then he saw their end. It was in prayer. In the struggle, our best help is in praying. When we are having more of the struggle we need to pray more and that is what he did.

I read about Jonah. It was not the spirit of God that told Jonah to flee to Tarshish but it was the flesh. There was one voice that was saying to him to go to Nineveh and to preach to the city and another voice was saying to flee to Tarshish. The struggle, the two voices. The two natures. The one was fearing God and the other was wanting to flee and to go MY WAY. For a while, the flesh prevailed and he went down into the ship to flee to Tarshish and he got into a storm. When the flesh is prevailing in the struggle, storms often follow. Then things turned and the spirit had pre-eminence. So he went to Nineveh and the city repented. Beautiful things happen when the spirit is prevailing but the flesh wasn’t dead and it seemed like it came back to plague him again. It wasn’t the Spirit of God that made him angry but it was the flesh. When we feel emotions and feelings of anger, we want to be very very careful because then the flesh is prevailing. With Jonah, the flesh wasn’t dead and the flesh doesn’t die easily. This old flesh is there and is not easily put down.

Someone was raising snakes and they told me that they could go for a year without feeding those snakes. I remember when I was a little boy out in the country, out in the prairies, we went looking for snakes and they told us that it takes 24 hours for a snake to die. That is what they told us, “Don’t go near it for 24 hours.“ This flesh doesn’t die quickly. It is still there and it is still trying to take over, but it is the struggle.

Anyhow, Jesus said about Jonah that the city of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah but that a greater than Jonah is here. That gives us to understand that Jonah was a great man, but he also had the struggle and great men also have this struggle. But our struggle is precious to God. Sometimes it is a struggle to keep a right spirit, a struggle to keep our thoughts right. It could be many things, and sometimes even a struggle to love your brother or a sister, but there is a virtue that lies in the struggle. That is when the fruit comes and every effort that we put forth in the struggle will be rewarded. One thing that is good to remember is that God is greater than any man’s struggles and our struggle is precious to God. It is sacred. Our struggle is sacred to God because it shows to God that we love Him and it shows to Him that we want to do what is right. Just because we are struggling and we’re fighting the battle. We are not always getting the victory and sometimes we’re falling but we are still struggling. It shows too that it is our desire to live and it is our desire to go on. I was thinking about a brother back home and he told me one time about when he was a little boy. His father wasn’t in God’s way and oftentimes coming home drunk and making it hard for his little family. He and his brother would have a lot of food put on their plates and it was too much, they just couldn’t eat it, and the father would become angry. Somehow there was a little shelf down under the table and when nobody was looking he would put some of that food down there on that little shelf. Well, he did that but then he wondered how come that shelf never got full. Then he realised that his mother must have found it and tipped it out. She knew that the best way to help her son in his struggle was just to be quiet and not to be talking about it. It is a wonderful thing when we learn that the best way to help a brother or another in their struggle is not talking about it.

I also heard about a little boy and he had a struggle and he tried and he tried, but he just could not help teasing his sister. Everybody has their struggles and our struggles are not all the same. We all have them and sometimes the struggle is mine and sometimes it’s yours and sometimes it is someone else’s, but we need to be careful how we treat another in their struggle. The struggle that is someone else’s today may be yours tomorrow, so just be careful.

I love a little verse in Proverbs 25:2 where it says it is the glory of God to conceal a matter and little do we know how often God does that. God sees all of our struggles, every one, and He knows every time we fall, but He also knows when we have gotten the victory and that is what He is looking at. It wasn’t always, but there were victories, and little do we know all God is concealing.

We know that the best way to lift up another is not by putting them down. It is by concealing their struggle and thereby encouraging them and lifting them up. He knows that we don’t help another stand by pushing them down. God knows that and He knows best how to help another. Oftentimes, we fail to see the brave, courageous struggle that another is putting forth and all we see is their mistake and their failure, but we can’t see the struggle. We can’t see how they’ve struggled. The bravery to try again. May God help us in these things.

I heard about a shepherd and he was different from the other shepherds. When they were shearing the sheep and if the sheep was struggling, he didn’t call it anything but a sheep. You know now, when we see another and they’re struggling and we don’t say anything, but we just call them a friend and a brother, that will make us different. Our only authority is to show mercy in another’s struggle. So if we can just wait these things out, wait out the struggle, we’ll get the blessing. I’ll tell you some things. The spirit desperately needs God but the flesh is craving the approval of men. Sometimes we get up early to have a little quiet time to feed the spirit and the flesh objects because it wants to stay in bed. The spirit needs solitude and the flesh craves entertainment and we can’t have both. When we’re praying, the flesh will say, “That’s long enough let’s get to bed,” but the spirit says, “Let us wait a little longer, I need more time.” Sometimes there are even times when the flesh doesn’t want to go to the meeting but the spirit desperately needs to be there. The struggle goes on.

The gospel message is good news for the spirit but it is bad news for the flesh. There is the struggle. The flesh thrives on competition, but the spirit loves unity. The flesh shuns reproach but reproach enriches the spirit. The spirit loves the ways of God, the kindly, gentle ways of God, and the flesh wants to change God’s way to make it easier for the flesh. The flesh is always stirring things up and the spirit settles things down. As long as we are in the flesh, we will be hurting people and we’ll be getting hurt. Bruises, wounds, and sores are all things that have to do with the flesh but healing comes from the spirit. These bodies are just temporary dwelling places for the spirit. The time will come when the flesh will go back to the dust and the spirit will go back to God who gave it. So they have very different destinies and the flesh cannot tolerate the atmosphere of heaven but the spirit is at home with God.

Another little thought is that an aeroplane needs resistance to get off the ground. A bicycle needs motion to stay upright and we need the struggle to grow in the way of God and to bear fruit. The anchor is unseen, it is hidden and it is like the spirit, you can’t see it. The chain that ties the anchor to the ship is faith. The ship is the flesh and the ship is always struggling against the anchor but we’re glad it’s there and we don’t want to lose it.

In one testimony once they said that there was a little lamb and it was always struggling to keep up with the other sheep and they said, “That little lamb was me.” Someone else was saying that they were like a lamp with faulty wiring. The struggle.

We sing a hymn that says, “Thy struggle will end at the dawn of day and thou shalt be glad for each test that helped you to value the lowly way and gain for thy soul God’s best. So struggling soul, press onward and keep the goal in view.”