I want to share what i got from my sunday's devotion. I planed to post it faster but i couldn't so this is it, the "Wonderful Wrestle". On sunday, the devotion was about Jacob's wrestling with God (Genesis 32:22-32). If you read this story, at that time, Jacob's persistence made God cannot prevail him until God touched the hollow of his thigh; and Jacob's thigh was put out of joint as he wrestled with God. They wrestled from night until morning. What i get from this story is Jacob's spirit to not give up no matter what. What Jacob did, inspires me. These are what i get from the story.1. Verse 24 - "And Jacob was left alone, and a Man wrestled with him until daybreak."
The time when Jacob wrestled with a Man (God Himself) was at night and he was alone that time. That situation represents when we live in the problems that we can not handle. Everything looks so dark that we can not see the solution and it's like we are alone and helpless. But in this verse...It says that the wrestling was ended when the daybreak came. The darkness are transformed into the sunrise. When we struggle the problem with God, we will see the sunrise, the bright side of our problem. So don't struggle alone (or feel alone) when you are in the darkness of your problem, struggle with God.
2. Verse 29 - "Then Jacob asked Him, Tell me, I pray You, what is Your name? But He said, Why is it that you ask My name? And a blessing on there."
Jacob didn't know that the Man he wrestled with was God who disguise as a Man. But after the wrestling ended, Jacob realized that it was God (Verse 25 - And Jacob called the name of the place Pniel, saying, For I have seen God face to face, and my life is spared and not snatched away) What can we learn from this part? We can learn that problem struggling makes us to know God more. When we live in hard circumstances, we will hang to God more and because we are so close to God, we can know Him more.
3. Verse 26 -"Then He said, Let Me go, for day is breaking. But [Jacob] said, I will not let You go unless You declare a blessing upon me."
At the first time, Jacob hadn't realized that the sunrise had come. The fight was over and he had already blessed. Because Jacob is a person with persistence who never give up, he didn't want to let the Man go until he was blessed. We can learn from what Jacob did from this. In hard circumstances and it seems like there are no solutions, don't give up. Why? because the sun will rise and in that sunrise, there are blessings. Behind every life struggling, we can find blessings from God. And that what God did to Jacob.
God blessed Jacob. God in that time is the same with God right now. God wants to bless us when we struggle with Him. Life is never easy...there are many problems ready to test us. Have a wonderful wrestling with God =)
