Today, I want to encourage you in this: Wrestling with GOD is necessary to receive His blessings!
Our lives can get really hectic and the thought of having to wrestle with GOD might not be at the top of your list of favourite things to do... but I want to remind you of a man in the Bible who had to do just that.
Genesis 32:22-29
That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. 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.
It's a simple story, but it's also a reminder of the journey we need to take along the road to GOD's blessings for our lives. I firmly believe that GOD blesses us only when we're ready to receive! This can be a tough pill to swallow because we may believe that we're ready today, but GOD is the only one who can see the journey that we need to take.
I found this awesome prayer by John van de Laar that encourages us to take the journey!
(Print it out and pop it in your Bible at Genesis 32)
Wrestling
by John van de Laar
© 2010 Sacredise
Following you is not as easy as it may seem at first, God;
Getting your ways into our hearts
is not a matter of just reading a few verses of the Bible,
or singing a few hymns;
No, to get your law inscribed on our inmost beings takes some wrestling;
It takes standing our ground when you come to us
in your fearful glory,
and carrying the mark of the encounter in our bodies and souls;
It takes prayer that is more than superstitious words
to try and manipulate circumstances or people,
but is a life-altering opening of ourselves,
that confronts and challenges us,
and makes us your instruments of justice and grace.
But if we are to live what we believe,
to go beyond empty words
or simple agreement with ideas or doctrines,
we need this wrestling;
If our lives are to be portals for your reign,
channels for your compassion and healing,
containers for your joy and abundance,
we need our hearts to be broken open,
our souls to be engraved with your words,
our bodies to be driven by something more than appetite.
And so we come, nervously but expectantly,
and offer ourselves to you again
in whole-hearted prayer and worship.
Getting your ways into our hearts
is not a matter of just reading a few verses of the Bible,
or singing a few hymns;
No, to get your law inscribed on our inmost beings takes some wrestling;
It takes standing our ground when you come to us
in your fearful glory,
and carrying the mark of the encounter in our bodies and souls;
It takes prayer that is more than superstitious words
to try and manipulate circumstances or people,
but is a life-altering opening of ourselves,
that confronts and challenges us,
and makes us your instruments of justice and grace.
But if we are to live what we believe,
to go beyond empty words
or simple agreement with ideas or doctrines,
we need this wrestling;
If our lives are to be portals for your reign,
channels for your compassion and healing,
containers for your joy and abundance,
we need our hearts to be broken open,
our souls to be engraved with your words,
our bodies to be driven by something more than appetite.
And so we come, nervously but expectantly,
and offer ourselves to you again
in whole-hearted prayer and worship.
