Genesis 32:24-26, “25 Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. 26 And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.” But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!”
There is a constant wrestle that takes place in our lives. I realize that the wrestling does not happen much with everyone around but when you are left alone in your quiet time. Many have sleepless nights due to wrestling with ideas, thoughts, opinions, decisions to make, or moves to make; weighing different options and trying to evaluate whether it is the right thing to do or not.
The thing about wrestling, only one can win. Wrestling is basically a struggle where strength, moves and strategies are applied with an aim to win. Wrestling to know if something is of God or just your flesh. Are you wrestling with something even right now? In all I am facing, I would rather wrestle in prayers. One man had an encounter with God when he was left alone. Alone in his own world, in thoughts. God spoke to him to move back to his home having been mistreated by Laban. If you remember the story correctly, the reason Jacob was at Laban’s was to flee from his brother Esau whom he had cheated off of his inheritance. He had been at peace at Laban’s so far, married his two daughters, had children, and possessions. Going back was tough because he had to deal with his past; Esau, someone he ran from a long time ago and situations he ran away from he was going to face. He would have not liked to confront but he had to.
God was going to raise him to new heights and so He brings him to confront what he ran away from so as to deal with it, push through and concur. At times, you will need to be left alone to wrestle through. You might have had people surround you wrestle for you and fight your battles and that is okay but if God is going to make you something bigger, He will bring you to a place alone with a lot of confrontations. Times of fear should be times of prayer: whatever causes fear should drive us to our knees to pray to our God. “And a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day”. God wrestled with Jacob that day, how often do you wrestle with God? He says something according to His word and you ask how it can be. He tries to show you, but you bring in what has happened and what could have happened and the wrestling continues. All night you are wrestling yet you are not prevailing. Here is what got me, vs. 25, “Now when He (God) saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hips”. Does this mean God failed to pin Jacob? I believe, “the divine adversary was also the electing saving Lord who strengthened Jacob with grace to wrestle on against Himself lest he be overcome and condemned. However tried or discouraged, we shall prevail; and prevailing with Him in prayer, we shall prevail against all enemies that strive with us”, Matthew Henry). It’s like God saying, “we both wrestled each other but none of us prevailed because My strength is in you”, vs. 26, “And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks” But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!”.
Someone who has wrestled all night wakes up tired and exhausted and we see with Jacob who wrestles and now does not want to let go because his life depends on who he’s been wrestling with. He wants to be on the same page with Him and he says, “I will not let you go unless you bless me“. I have wrestled in my thoughts, decisions and ideas I should have wrestled in prayers. I will not let Him go unless He has blessed me, showed me His way, strengthened me, provided for me, taught me how to go about it. 1Peter 5:7, “Casting all your cares upon Him; for He cares for you”. Jacob knew God cared for him otherwise he would have died that day. Anyone who encountered with God like he did in the OT would not live unless God let him. He was spared and because of that, he did cast his care for a blessing from God who cared for him. Where are you today? Are you wrestling in prayers? There are blessings stored for wrestlers. Blessings Evans
He Has Magnified His Word 