We have all wrestled with God at one time or another. We want our own way. We think we know best. But are we even listening? Are we so busy doing our own thing, the thing we think God wants us to do that we aren't taking time to listen to Him and hear how He wants us to do it?
God couldn't deal with Jacob until He got him alone. Jacob was so busy doing what God wanted, he hadn't listened to how God wanted him to do it. Jacob's adversary wasn't Esau, it was his own carnal ways. Jacob hadn't surrendered to God's will and was still trying to do things in his own strength. It took a sleepless night, a night of spent strength before Jacob could truly be used by God the way God needed him to be. Jacob had to give up himself.
Isn't that what surrender is? Isn't that what God wants? If you're like me, there's this tug of war game going on. You give it to God and then take it back, give a little and try to take control again. We're not much different then Jacob on that mountain top on a long ago night.
Genesis 32:22-32 NLT
Jacob Wrestles with God
22 During the night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two servant wives, and his eleven sons and crossed the Jabbok River with them. 23 After taking them to the other side, he sent over all his possessions.
24 This left Jacob all alone in the camp, and a Man came and wrestled with him until the dawn began to break. 25 When the Man saw that He would not win the match, He touched Jacob’s hip and wrenched it out of its socket. 26 Then the Man said, “Let Me go, for the dawn is breaking!”
But Jacob said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me.”
27 “What is your name?” the Man asked.
He replied, “Jacob.”
28 “Your name will no longer be Jacob,” the man told him. “From now on you will be called Israel, because you have fought with God and with men and have won.”
29 “Please tell me Your name,” Jacob said.
“Why do you want to know My name?” the man replied. Then he blessed Jacob there.
30 Jacob named the place Peniel (which means “face of God”), for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared. " 31 The sun was rising as Jacob left Peniel, and he was limping because of the injury to his hip. 32 (Even today the people of Israel don’t eat the tendon near the hip socket because of what happened that night when the Man strained the tendon of Jacob’s hip.)
Blessings, Cecilia
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