What Does It Mean to Wrestle with God?
To answer, “What does it mean to wrestle with God?”, does it mean waking up feeling spiritually alive is the perfect day to do so? I ask God questions relating to suffering, inequalities, and the constant grind of “why God why.” At no time, did I contemplate that one who wrestles with God puts me in a one-upmanship position with Him.
When growing spiritually, I’d rather ask questions and keep my thigh bone healthy. Huh? Jacob wrestling with God led to consequences.
Genesis 32:24-31: So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”
The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered. Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but
Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.” Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.” But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.” The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip.
Seems like there’s more we can learn from Jacob’s experience.
Why did Jacob wrestle with God?
Jacob wrestled purposely. After an all-night wrestle, the man in the
One thing I’ve learned. Tenacious faith pleases God.
God already knew that Jacob was different. Jacob didn’t. The struggles Jacob encountered in life had changed, grown, and tested his faith. God wanted to make him a blessing and He had. Jacob no longer needed to swindle and deceive to receive blessings. He was finally on the receiving end of God’s giving nature.
The patriarch, Jacob, transitioned from a deceiver to an overcomer in a few seconds. His faith came out on top. He entered the wrestling match with fearful thoughts of his upcoming meeting with his brother Esau (read all of Genesis 32).
Jacob couldn’t rest. He struggled and feared for his family and possessions. He left that match a man who knew God’s face intimately. Still, Jacob wanted more. He asked to know God’s name. God replied, “Why do you ask?” Does that question imply that Jacob should already know or did Jacob need more faith? I’m not sure but I know Jacob was on a new journey with God.
Steps To Wrestle with God
- Focus on God. When God has you in a full Nelson, you totally focus on Him. God pursued Jacob. It wasn’t the other way around. God meant business. Fear had to go because it paralyzed Jacob (as it does anyone).
- Accept God’s help. God knows where He takes his children. He’s not the one taking you down a dark, isolated road. We take detours away from God. In doing so, we miss blessings. It’s actually that simple.
- Wrestle with God by praying. A Christian’s only source of comfort and help comes from God. When you cut yourself off from your life source, you’re dangling on the edge of a cliff on a thin rope. You might not be happy about life so tell God.
- Recognize God’s strength. When Jacob wrestled with God, it finally dawned on him who he was wrestling with because He had spent time with God before.
- Turn from fear to trust. I’ve finally done this in my life. I faced my fears and found God patiently waiting in faith for me to combine faith with trust.
What Does It Mean to Wrestle with God?
I wrestled with God in the last few years more than ever. That’s because He wanted more for me than I wanted for myself. Every time I turned to books, things, or anything that kept me
It felt like God was being particularly hard on me. I resented that there wasn’t anything I could get away with—thoughts, intentions, and idols I set up in my heart.
God gently but firmly pounded away at my heart. Trust me. Just trust me. It’s okay to trust me. I thought I was but He tore down the fake walls of faith I held to.
Then the blessings came.
I’m not referring to physical things. I finally had a sense of what God wanted. He simply wanted me. All of me. I let go of the control reins. The old Betsy had died. I was free in body, mind, and spirit and didn’t even remember my old nature.
I felt like Jacob when the wrestling ended. He traveled to Shechem, the same place where Abraham built his first altar. Jacob also built an altar and called it “the God of Israel.” As we read in Genesis above, the old Jacob became Israel. He now could exclaim that God was his.
That’s how I felt after my long encounter with God. He was mine and I was His. So yes. Wrestling with God is definitely okay. I’ve done it and God worked out what I fought to hold onto—ME.
Faith became my own, not someone else’s. God knew I had to walk through intense pain to come out stronger. I let go of deep wounds. Before I wrestled with God, I limped along spiritually.
There will be other fires. I’ll go through them with God. That’s because I serve the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. I serve the God of Betsy.