Genesis 25:22-23
And the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to enquire of the Lord. And the Lord said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.
Rebekah is no longer barren. The prayer has been answered. Life is in her womb. But now there is a new problem.
There is a struggle inside.
And I think that is important because sometimes we imagine that once God answers prayer, everything should immediately feel calm and settled. But that is not always the way it goes. Sometimes the answer to prayer is followed by a new kind of wrestling.
Rebekah feels something deeply wrong, something she cannot sort out on her own, so she does the wisest thing she could do.
She goes to inquire of the Lord.
That is such a needed word for us. When there is confusion within, when there is unrest in the heart, when something is churning that we cannot explain, our first move should not be panic. It should not be self diagnosis. It should not be running everywhere else first.
Go to the Lord.
She took her troubling inward condition to the only One who could tell her what was really going on. And the Lord did exactly that. He told her the struggle was real, and He told her why. There were two nations in her womb. Two manner of people. Two different lines. Two different directions. Two different strengths pressing against each other.
That speaks to us so clearly.
Once you belong to the Lord, it does not mean you never feel conflict again. It means now there is a real war within. The flesh pulls one way. The spirit pulls another. Galatians 5:17 says the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. Romans 8:6 says, “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”
That is why there can be a rumbling inside even in a saved person.
You have been prayed for. You have been brought near. You are no longer barren. But there is still a battle over what will rule, what will grow, what will become stronger.
And that is where choice comes in.
Whichever nature you feed will gain strength.
If I feed the flesh through bitterness, lust, vanity, compromise, self pity, and constant indulgence, I should not be surprised when the flesh grows loud and heavy. It will push hard. It will want more room. It will try to dominate everything.
But if I feed the spirit through the Word, prayer, worship, obedience, and fellowship, something different begins to happen. The spirit grows stronger. The flesh does not disappear overnight, but it loses ground. Its voice weakens. Its grip loosens.
That is the path that leads to life and peace.
So when you feel that inward struggle, do not conclude that something strange has happened. It may simply mean the battle is real. The question is not whether there is a conflict. The question is which side you are helping to grow.
Rebekah went to the Lord for understanding.
We must do the same.
And once He shows us what is happening, we need to cooperate with the spirit and stop pampering the flesh. That is the better way. That is the freer way. That is the peaceful way.