Wrestle

I once asked a friend of mine what made him a good bull rider. His response both tickled me and made me think at the same time. He said, "You have just got to want to ride the bull worse than the bull wants to throw you off and stomp you in the ground."

In my study of Jacob, who happens to be one of my favorite Old Testament characters, I discovered that he might have rather rode a snot slinging, bucking, and jumping 2,000lb bull than to face his brother Esau. As he travelled to Canaan, he carried all his possessions along with a heart full of guilt and sin. He had robbed his older brother of his birthright and the blessing of his father and due to this he lived in a constant state of fear that Esau would seek to take revenge on Jacob. Along the way home Jacob decided to spend a night alone to take advantage of some peace and quiet. What he found was the exact opposite. Instead of peace and rest, Jacob found himself in a wrestling match with God!

Have you ever thought what this must have been like? I have experienced stressful situations at work, arguments with my wife, and struggles with my family that made me want to seek a place that I could gain a moment of peace and quiet. And what did I find there? I found the same emotional and spiritual load that I tried to leave behind was right there with me. I found that instead of clinging to God with all my strength, the only one that could provide real relief, I was clinging to my burdens and stress, allowing the worry to get the better of me. 

I have found that at time I have to put everything aside, reach out to God, and hold on with everything that I have. The only way I can really escape the burden of sin and guilt is by embracing Jesus who defeated these burdens and paid for my sins already. Make no mistake in thinking that the God who created the heavens and the earth doesn't care about your stress and worry. He loves each one of us and is waiting on us to trust Him with our cares, stress, worry, and each and every situation we face. 

Jacob had the greatest example of all by holding on to God all through the night and not letting go. When the darkness comes who or what will you hold on to? What will you cling to when the problems come and you feel pressed on every side? 

"The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had. 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 to him, '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 asked 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 Penuel, 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." Genesis 32: 22-32 ESV