A Wrestling Match

Some of you may remember the story in Genesis 32 of Jacob wrestling with God before he met his brother Esau. It was after this match that God renamed him Israel, which literally means "Prince with God", and blessed him. The match cost Jacob something; God touched his hip and the muscle around it shrank, so that he walked with a limp for the rest of his life. And yet Jacob would not let go. Verse 26 says, "And He said, 'Let Me go, for the day breaks.' But he said, 'I will not let You go unless you bless me!'"

It may sound arrogant at first that Jacob presumes to tell God no when God commands him to do something, but they had been wrestling all night. Jacob wasn't about to give in and have the night wasted. And God didn't want him to. Was the wrestling a real match? Yes and no. From the way his hip was put out of joint, we know Jacob could have been destroyed easily at any time - he was fighting God after all - but he knew whom he was wrestling with and didn't give in. Why?

Because he was desperate to get what only God could give him. In my last post, I talked about the effects of becoming more and more desperate for something. Jacob was a truly desperate man. He was desperate, not because he had nothing, but because what he knew he needed could only come from one source, and that source was God. So when he got a hold of God, he wasn't going to let go until God gave him what he wanted. His wrestling with God proved that he knew God was the only one who could truly fulfill him, his one true source of all good. If Jacob believed otherwise, he would have let God go and pursued his happiness another way.

I'm not saying that we can do the same thing and ask for things that are against God's will and get them. God won't give us anything against His will for us to have, even though we can get these things if we seek after them instead of seeking after God. I mean that when we want something from God that is His will for us to have, there are times He tests us. He needs to be...no, better said...We need Him to be the primary source for all good in our lives.

Abraham had a similar test happen to him. He was told to sacrifice Isaac, after God had told him that Abraham would be the father of many nations. I can only imagine what was going on in Abraham's mind. "Lord, how can I be the father of many nations if my son is dead and my other son cast out of my house? Is there a miracle coming? Will I have another son? Did God lie to me?" And yet he overcame his doubts and fears and was willing to offer his son to God. Why? Because he trusted God and depended on Him to be his source.

In what areas do you feel like you're wrestling with God? If these are things that you are certain are God's will for you, don't give up. If you are not absolutely positive that they are God's will, ask Him for wisdom and discernment, and then cling to Him to bless you.

And that brings up one final point. Jacob demanded a blessing from God, but he never told God what the blessing should be. Too often, we tell God that we want something, say a good career, for example, and then we find one that looks good and demand God to give it to us. We can do the same thing with almost anything: we know what we want and, since there's nothing in the Bible against having a good career or a loving spouse or lots of money, we assume those things are God's will for us and that we know best how He should deliver them.

God's will for you may not be something that brings you financial riches or that dream marriage or lots of fame and an easy life. Look at Paul. He was poor, beaten, whipped, imprisoned, and later killed. Not exactly what we would deem a happy, successful life. But he was living according to God's will for him and, in a way, he was more blessed than perhaps any other man (Jesus aside) in the Bible, for he was so close to God that he had peace throughout all his sufferings. Will God's will for you lead you into such extreme conditions? Probably not, but I can bet Paul would not trade his life for millions of dollars, a gorgeous mansion, and a beautiful, loving wife without God's presence and peace. There's nothing wrong with wishing for good things in your life or asking God for them, but be open to what His will is for you. Let Him choose your blessing, and you will then be truly blessed.