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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