Wrestling with God

God has placed dreams and promises in my heart that haven’t come to fruition yet.  It can be frustrating.  I would imagine that many of you reading this could say the same thing.  God where is your answer?  What is your timing?  Are you even listening?  Have you forgotten about me?  Have I done something wrong?

It seems that while we are waiting on God for His answers and timing the enemy comes in with lies and doubts and we partner with him and begin to feel discouraged and abandoned.

There are dozens of stories in the Bible where normal, sinful people were struggling with God, waiting for His promises.  One story I love is that of Jacob. 

Jacob was a normal, stinky, younger brother.  He tempted Esau right out of His birthright and then cheated him out of his blessing.  He ran away, got married (twice!), cleverly took his father-in-laws best goats from his flock as his own and ran away again.  He wasn’t all bad though.  He was a hard worker and very smart.  God blessed all that he put his hands to.  He worshipped the God of his fathers and built alters to them.

On his way back to his home to make amends with his brother he stops to wrestle with God.  The Bible doesn’t say this exactly, but I wonder if Jacob remembers the promise God gave to his grandfather Abraham that his decedents would be more than the grains of sand or the stars in the sky.  God’s blessing would be on Abraham and all of the generations after him.  I wonder if Jacob wasn’t seeing the promise fulfilled here.  Especially now that he was to meet up with his brother who he was sure was still angry with him.

So he sends his family on ahead and stays to wrestle with God.  He laid it out before his God.  He knew He needed God’s blessing to go forward with this meeting with Esau.

In Genesis 32:23-28 it says

²³ After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. ²⁴ So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. ²⁵ When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. ²⁶ Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

²⁷ The man asked him, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he answered.

²⁸ Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel,^[a] because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

Matthew Henry’s commentary says this about wrestling:

Nothing requires more vigor and unceasing exertion than wrestling. It is an emblem of the true spirit of faith and prayer. Jacob kept his ground; though the struggle continued long, this did not shake his faith, nor silence his prayer. He will have a blessing, and had rather have all his bone put out of joint than go away without one. Those who would have the blessing of Christ must resolve to take no denial. The fervent prayer is the effectual prayer.

This is our responsibility: to wrestle with God.  Wrestling challenges our faith and causes us to press in, unwilling to let go until we receive the blessing of God.  It’s exhausting, challenging, tiring, and can seem endless, but it is truly powerful.

God answered Jacob’s prayer for blessing and favor.  God restored Jacob and Esau’s relationship and blessed the nations through them.  He listens and doesn’t demand a perfect life in order to receive His promises, just one willing to wrestle and struggle with God and humans and overcome.

God, let us be ones who do not fear the wrestling but overcome in faith!