Good morning!  I hope everyone is doing well in the new start to the year.  I hope and pray that you are reading and studying and living out God’s Word each day.

In Genesis 32:22-32, the account of Jacob wrestling with God is given to us.  Jacob is returning home, and he is in fear of his brother Esau.  He sent all his servants and livestock ahead of him to try and appease Esau.

²² The same night he arose and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. ²³ He took them and sent them across the stream, and everything else that he had.²⁴ And Jacob was left alone. And a man wrestled with him until the breaking of the day. ²⁵ When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he touched his hip socket, and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. ²⁶ Then he said, “Let me go, for the day has broken.” But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” ²⁷ And he said to him, “What is your name?” And he said, “Jacob.” ²⁸ Then he said, “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.”²⁹ Then Jacob asked him, “Please tell me your name.” But he said, “Why is it that you ask my name?” And there he blessed him. ³⁰ So Jacob called the name of the place Peniel, saying, “For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life has been delivered.” ³¹ The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip.³² Therefore to this day the people of Israel do not eat the sinew of the thigh that is on the hip socket, because he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip on the sinew of the thigh. Gen 32:22-32

When all was said and done, Jacob the deceiver had become Israel.  There was an immediate change in Jacob.  Instead of hiding behind his wives, servants and children, Gen 33:3 tells us that  “³ He himself went on before them, bowing himself to the ground seven times, until he came near to his brother.”

Jacob was changed!  He was now Israel! 

Have you ever felt like  you were wrestling with God?  I sure have.  Sometimes in order for God to get our attention, He has to get us down on the ground, get us dirty, wrestle us around until we give up.  It’s a shame that we have to get to that point, but sometimes that’s what it takes.  But then we are changed!  We are ready to do  what God asks of us.

I hope and pray that if you are wrestling with God, that He will keep you on the ground, in a headlock if He needs to, until you say yes to Him.