What Are You Reading? – Striving with God

hello and welcome to this week's moment in the word this is our series what are you reading and this week i'm going to share with you a passage in genesis that i've been reading and it really just struck me as i was doing it this morning in my devotional time and so i wanted to share it with you. It's from Genesis 32, starting in verse 22. And I want to give you a little backstory. Of course, this is the passage where Jacob wrestles with God or the angel of the Lord, it says. But if you think about Jacob's life, his life was a life of struggle. And from the time he was born, you know, he was a twin. His brother Esau was the firstborn. Jacob was the second born. But all along, Jacob, God had chosen Jacob to have the blessing and the birthright. But the way that came about was through struggle. It was through deception. Jacob and his mother deceived Isaac. And in doing so, this created such tension and animosity with his brother Esau. And so Jacob has been separated from his family for some time he goes and he falls in love with laban's daughter and laban has two daughters as you know leah and rachel and he falls in love with rachel and he is tricked into marrying rachel he works for seven years then he is tricked into marrying leah excuse me and then he has to work another seven to marry the woman that he truly loves Rachel. And so it's just this struggle throughout his life. And God meets with him as God has placed it on his heart to go and reconcile with his brother Esau. And so he packs up all his belongings. He takes his family. He takes cattle and gifts of all kinds to present to Esau as an offering to his brother so that they can reconcile. And at night this happens. He takes and his family crosses over the stream, it says, and Jacob is left alone. And it's at this point that I'm going to start reading in verse 23 where Jacob and God wrestle. So it says, starting in verse, excuse me, Verse 24, it says, and Jacob was left alone and a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket and Jacob's hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. Then he said, let me go for the day has broken. But Jacob said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. And he said to him, what is your name and he said Jacob then he said your name shall no longer be called Jacob but Israel for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed then Jacob said to him please tell me your name but he said why is it that you ask my name and there he blessed him so Jacob called the name of the place, Peniel, saying, For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered. The sun rose upon him as he passed Peniel, limping because of his hip. Therefore, to this day, the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob's hip on the sinew of the thigh. So, so much to learn from that passage. But as I said, Jacob's life was a life of struggle. But here he finally surrenders to God. He struggles with God. It says he wrestled with God. And I struggled with that word wrestle because I'm like, he wrestled with God? Like, that doesn't seem right. But it's not the kind of wrestling that you and I think it is. It's not wrestling as in for him to prevail. It's wrestling as in grappling with God, clinging to God through the struggle. So Jacob went from um, from striving through his struggles to striving with God, um, through his struggles, like hanging on to God, clinging to God in the midst of his struggles so that God could prevail. God could lead him out of those struggles. And, um, it says, um, in verse, I think it's 28, your name shall no longer be called Jacob because you have striven with God and with men. That word striven really means persevered so he's persevered through this time with the Lord through his trials through his struggles and he has ultimately surrendered fully to God and then God blesses him in that time and he walks away with a limp because oftentimes after we've struggled after we have wrestled with God or grappled with God or clung to God and surrendered through these struggles, often we are left with scars. But these scars or these wounds, whether they're emotional or mental or physical scars, they are reminders of us, to us, of God's faithfulness, of God's blessing of God walking through our struggles with us. I am reminded that when Jacob became weak, when that hip socket was harmed and he basically surrendered to God, then that is when he became strong. So I'm reminded of 2 Corinthians 12, 9, which says, my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in your weakness. And it's true for us today. As we struggle through difficulties and trials, we need to remember that we're not trying to wrestle against the trials. We're wrestling with God. We're grappling with God in the midst of those. We're surrendering to God so that he can take us through those things. And so I don't know if that helps you today, but I pray that it does. And I pray that you'll remember that when we are weak, he is strong because his strength is perfect in us. But we have to surrender to God to get to that place. So I want to pray for us and then I'll let you get on about your week because I'm sure you have a busy one coming up. Let's pray together. Father, thank you so much for your word and the power that is in your word thank you that you do allow us to grapple with you to struggle with you through our trials so that we can better understand them and better release them to you as we surrender God for any woman who is hearing my voice right now I just ask that whatever is going on in her life would you touch her just as you touch Jacob and give her a reminder that you are there that she just needs to let go and let you take control when she is weak you are strong because your grace is more than sufficient for us i pray these things in jesus name amen i pray you have a blessed week and we'll see you next time

Originally published at warren.church.