June 5, 2023

Genesis 32: 31 The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. (NIV)

Anyone who spends time with the Lord will find it evidenced in his life.*

Back in Genesis chapter 28, Jacob had an encounter with God that involved angels and a stairway to heaven. (I’m pretty sure that Led Zeppelin was not performing that night!) Now Jacob finds himself wrestling with someone identified only as “a man,” but when the bout was over, Jacob’s name was changed to Israel, which means “he struggles with God.” Whether the man was really God or just God’s representative, Jacob came away from the experience with physical evidence of his face-to-face meeting with God – a limp.

Have you ever stayed up all night wrestling with God? Were you trying to bend God to your will – but instead you limped away in defeat? Our nighttime wrestling matches with God often end paradoxically: when we lose, we win. When our will is defeated, we are victorious. We may not come away with a limp to prove our victory but there is evidence in our spiritual walk. 

Just as Jacob wouldn’t concede until the man blessed him, we shouldn’t give up until we hear God’s voice. He may not say what we want to hear – in fact, we wouldn’t be struggling if our will wasn’t already at odds with his – but our spiritual limp will turn into a victory march when we let him win!

Victory and power will come as we sweetly submit our wills and ways to God.*