wrestled with God and with humans and have overcome ... Then He blessed him there ” ( 32:28,29 ). Yippeee ! The whistle is blown . The umpire lifts up Jacob ' s hand and declares him the winner ! The man blessed Jacob , the way the loser shakes hands with the winner , and exited the ring .
Suddenly it dawned on Jacob that , it was not some man but God who met him face-to-face ! ( Gen 32:30 ). God blessed him graciously and sent him for the finals , before He left Jacob .
Let ' s read the prophet Hosea ' s version of the incident : “ In the womb he grasped his brother ' s heel ; as a man he struggled with God . He struggled with the angel and overcame Him ; he wept and begged for His favour . He found Him at Bethel and talked with Him there the Lord God Almighty , the Lord is His name ” ( Hos 12:3-5 ). It was a serious time of intercession with tears .
God .
I want to disclose to you two wonders of prayer life that Jacob discovered in His tryst with God . If you understand the two you cannot but be revived in your prayer life .
1 . Jacob found out that whenever he went to God to pray , God was there for Him . When he walked into the night , out of nowhere God appeared . When he went walking , God came running . He came close enough to be caught by Jacob . Was He not begging Jacob to let Him go ? Then why did He come too close to be caught ? He had to compulsorily come closer to Jacob to keep His promise .
Even though the man did not tell His name , now we know He was the Lord God Almighty ! Jacob had wept and begged to be blessed ! He used no bombastic language . His eyes were shedding tears , lips begging for blessing , hands holding on to God and hip in pain ! The pain of the dislocated hip did not deter his faith or silence his prayer . The answer was long to come till daybreak !
Sometimes we feel we cannot even pray for one hour . How to hold on to God till daybreak ? What to pray for , for so long ? This is where we need the help of the Holy Spirit . As the apostle Paul says , “ The Spirit helps us in our weakness . We do not know what we ought to pray for , but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us through wordless groans . And He who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit , because the Spirit intercedes for God ' s people in accordance with the will of God ” ( Rom 8:26,27 ). We need to ask God for the spirit of supplication . Wrestling believers may experience glorious victories but often suffer broken bones . How many of us have relaxed our grip on God when some pain overpowers us ? Let come what may in life , hang on to
See Dt 4:7 , “ What other nation is there that has God near them the way the Lord our God is near us , whenever we pray to Him , for whatever reason ?” ( I have combined NKJV and NIV ). In all other religions a person has to get ready and go to the place of worship to pray to their God .
So you see , whenever we call on Him , for whatever reason , He is near us , so that we can take hold of Him . Now do you understand why Isaiah lamented that there was no one interested to call on Him to take hold of Him ? ( Isa 64:7 ).
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