Tuesday, January 18, 2005 @11:30 PM
we believe that God makes miracles ` #
Wrestling with God
The other day a friend said to me, "I am trying to follow God. But the people in my family are mean to each other, and a lot of things in my life aren’t going the way I would like them to. I think that God isn’t helping me very much and then I feel like I am wrestling with God. Is it wrong for me to wrestle with God like this?"
Sometimes when things go wrong in our lives we wonder what God is doing. At times like that we may wrestle with God and question if He is really helping us. That’s a good time for us to remember a man in the bible who actually did wrestle with God. His name was Jacob.
One night God visited Jacob in the form of a man and the two of them wrestled all night long. While they were wrestling, God injured Jacob’s hip so badly that he had to walk with a limp for the rest of his life. But Jacob won the fight.
In the morning Jacob said to the man, "I won’t let you go until you bless me." (Genesis 32:26) So God told Jacob, "I will bless you by changing your name to Israel. The name Israel means, "You have wrestled with God and won." (Genesis 32:27) That’s when Jacob realized he had been wrestling with God.
God didn’t get mad at Jacob or kill him. Instead, God was very close to Jacob during the struggle and even ended up blessing him. The greatest blessing that God gave Jacob came many years later. Jesus Christ was born into Jacob’s family. And because of Jesus, Jacob could have eternal life. And so can we.
Like Jacob, we don’t have to be afraid to wrestle with God. God doesn’t get mad at us when we question Him or when we struggle with the way things are going in our lives. If we don’t give up, and if we stay close to God, He will stay close to us. He will use our problems and questions to give us a blessing.
Can you think of any ways God could use our problems and questions to bless us? How would you answer the person who asked, "Is it wrong for me to wrestle with God?"
Jeanne Burger