Text: Acts 9:1-6
Memory verse:
“And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed to the Lord and wept in anguish.”
‭‭I Samuel‬ ‭1‬:‭10‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

We all have the inbuilt-tendency to trust in ourselves. We even flee from God when He comes after us to help us. I watched a video recently of how some park rangers ran after a wounded giraffe in the reserve to save it, knowing that the giraffe may die if not treated. The giraffe kept running away from those who wanted to save it until the huge animal was forcefully brought down.
Like the wounded giraffe, many people flee from Christ and do not see the need to trust Him to save them. They believe they can fix their wounds of sin by themselves. They trust in their own goodness, and their pride blinds them to their great need before God. They continue to turn down the call of the Saviour until He cripples and leaves them to discover their need for Him. Such was Saul of Tarsus. He was so full of religious pride and self-righteousness that he didn’t see the need for Christ, the Saviour (Phil 3:4-6).
While on the way to Damascus to persecute the church, the stubborn Saul was knocked down and blinded when Christ appeared to him. Like Jacob, having been ‘crippled’, he recognized his need for the Saviour and to trust Him. “So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?” …” ‭‭(Acts‬ ‭9‬:‭6‬). He recognized Jesus as Lord, that is, Master. His strong self-will was broken, and thus, he yielded to the will of the Master. This was a complete shift from his former life of self-dependence to God-dependence.
Now, in the Peniel story, we see that, even after Jacob had been wounded, he still didn’t leave the Lord but clung tightly to Him ‭‭(Gen‬ ‭32‬:‭26‬)‬‬. Did Jacob have such incredible strength, even after being wounded, to cling to the Lord? No, it wouldn’t have taken the Lord any time to loose Jacob’s grip. This is the point. The Lord loves it when His children cling to Him in their brokenness and say, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!”
Friends, we have stories of men and women, such as Joshua, Hannah, the Shunammite woman, Jabez, and the Syrophoenician woman, who clung to God until their narratives changed. What about the early apostles who prayed until the place was shaken; John Knox, who prayed, “Give me Scotland, or I die.”! Won’t you also cling to the Lord during this season to change your own story? However, you won’t cling as long as there is an iota of self- dependence in you!

Prayer points
1. Father, please, let no soul that has been fleeing from You escape Your arrest and salvation during this season in Jesus’ name.
2. Father, please, cripple any self-dependence in me and help me to cling to You for my blessings during this season in Jesus’ name.

Today’s declarations
1. Daily clinging to God in brokenness helps me to overcome my natural tendency to be self-dependent.
2. God loves it when I pray “I will not let You go until You bless me” but I can’t do that when there is an iota of self-dependence in me.