Grappling with God...Continued from page 3

But something happens. Jacob doesn’t let go, he holds on all the more. This man who is at the very least 70 years old, has his hip pulled out of joint and doesn’t let go of the man, but holds on all the more. The man calls out, “Let me go, for the day is about to break!” But Jacob won’t have any of it, he says, “I won’t let go until you bless me!”

So he asks Jacob what his name is. Here let me paraphrase maybe what was said, “Person who is grabbing and grappling with me, what is your name.” “My name is someone who grabs.”

With that God says to Jacob, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled, Grappled, with God and men, and you have prevailed.”

Now it is Jacob’s turn, he is the one who is asking for names. The man responds with, “Why is that you ask about my name?” Then Jacob gets blessed, and he realizes who it is that he has been wrestling with, who he has been grappling with – he has been grappling with God all night. Jacob names the place where he grappled with God Peniel, “For I have seen God face to face and my life is preserved.”

He entered the night unsure about what was going to happen in the morning with his brother, he has wrestled, grappled with God the whole night, and now Jacob knows that everything is going to be alright because God came and met with him. It isn’t that God just came and met with him, it’s that Jacob grappled with God until his request was heard, until he got what he needed from God that night.

My question for you this morning is: do you know what it is like to grapple with God? Oh sure we have our prayer requests, and we go before God for a couple of minutes a day, we say our little chants and we go about our ways. We keep praying those prayers, and sometimes we wonder how come God isn’t listening? How come God isn’t doing anything? My question to you is have you grappled with God?

You see grappling with God is saying that I am not going to let go until I receive the answer that I need or that I am looking for from God. Did you know Jesus, God’s one and only son grappled with God?

The Bible tells us about it in Luke 22:41 when Jesus was in Gethsemane. It says, “And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw away, and he knelt down and prayed, saying, ‘Father, if it is your will, take this cup from me; nevertheless not my will, but yours, be done.’ Then an angel appeared to him from heaven strengthening him. And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. Then his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground.”