Wrestling With God 2

An incredible passage of Scripture is found in Genesis 32. Jacob his heading back to meet his brother after years of being away. The brother that he schemed against and cheated. He’s rightfully nervous. He sends lavish gifts ahead of him to soften his brother’s heart. Then, in the midst of this story, we are told that Jacob was alone and a man came and wrestled with him all night. Later, Jacob recounts that he had seen God and face to face yet his life was spared. Jacob wrestled with God.

The crazy thing is that God allowed Jacob to wrestle with Him. God could have just blessed him. God could have just changed his name in another way. Yet, I think God wanted to see Jacob wrestle. By that I mean this, God wanted to know if Jacob wanted God more than anything. Was Jacob willing to pay a price to have all that God wanted for him?

It speaks to me because it feels like a lot of people simply want God’s blessing and aren’t willing to “wrestle” with Him to get it. Their Christian walk is practically devoid of God, yet they expect to have His blessing. God wants people that are willing to wrestle in prayer. God wants people that will wrestle with His Word. If you haven’t come across something in the Word that challenges you, convicts you, confuses you, or even angers you, maybe you’re not really wrestling with God.

Is it worth it? I believe so. It may be painful, it may be hard, and He might even throw our hip out of joint, but in the end we will find ourselves closer to God.