Jacob Wrestles with God...

“Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. 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.” ~ Genesis 32:24-25, NKJV

As Jacob prepared to meet Esau again, he spent the night alone on one side of the ford of Jabbok. Here he wrestled with God until dawn - and he prevailed. It's not good to prevail against God! A man only prevails against God when God restrains Himself, as a father with a child. God, our heavenly Father, wrestles against our wills in order to bring us into submission to Him, where we can prosper, have joy and peace, and be blessed. When we, like Jacob, won't yield to the Lord, He must move beyond wrestling and cripple us. A shepherd with a perennially wandering sheep will break that sheep's leg in order to save it from destroying itself (as would surely happen if it kept wandering). Then he binds the leg and tends the sheep as it heals, keeping the sheep close to himself. Later, when the sheep is well, it no longer strays far from the shepherd. Sometimes, as with Jacob, our wills our so vehemently opposed to God's that the Lord must cripple us in order to save us. He put Jacob's hip out of joint. He may send an injury, a sickness, a disability, or a confining circumstance to other Jacobs. When God cripples, whether permanently or temporarily, He always does it in love and with His child's best interest at heart. Through a crippling we learn, as a sheep does, that the best place to be is close to Him. But how much gentler, how much easier - on God and on ourselves! - to let Him prevail when He wrestles us! We save ourselves much time and pain, and we come that much quicker into the blessings and goodness of our loving Father God.

by Rebecca...