Prevail With God

I am taking a New Testament class from Hank Smith, a religious educator and prominent youth speaker. For an assignment, we read about the historical background of the New Testament.

From my reading, I learned that Israel, a common word in the Bible, means "one who prevails with God." I looked up the definition of prevail and discovered that is has three definitions:

1. Prevail - to persuade someone to do something

To be part of the House of Israel, we must give our will to God. We must let our Heavenly Parents guide us in our lives and persuade us to do good.

2. Prevail - to exist, to be prevalent

We exist because our Heavenly Parents created us in Their image. We exist because They wants us to become like Them. To achieve Their plan for us, we must exist with Them. They must be prevalent in our lives.

3. Prevail - to prove more powerful than the opposing forces

Evil exists in our world. It strives to influence our choices and our viewpoints of the world and ourselves. But with God, we can prevail. We can be victorious. We can triumph over every trial. We can achieve happiness and all the promised blessings that God has for us.

We are Israel. We are God's chosen people because we chose to follow Them.

With Them, we can be better and we can do better.

We can view the world through better eyes.

We can love better.

We can prevail.