ACE #219: Are You Afraid to Get Into a Tussle?

In the last week, social media has been on fire about T.I. and Floyd Mayweather, Jr. getting into fisticuffs.  But what was the prize?  Yeah…nothing.

As I thought about the story of Jacob wrestling with the angel all night long it made me wonder how defeated Christians walk around.  We just give up at the smallest sign of trouble - when something or someone threatens to overtake us.  We refuse to get through the struggle.

It is interesting that right before Jacob tussled with this angel, he was full of fear.  He assumed his brother, Esau, was going to repay him for his trickery all of those years ago.  He even sent numerous gifts ahead of him to pacify Esau.  While he spent the night in the camp alone, a man wrestled with Jacob until daybreak.  I find it quite interesting that Jacob would be scared of his brother, who he knew from birth, but not be scared of this “man” who was a complete stranger.

When the man requested that Jacob, whose name means "supplanter", let him go, Jacob refused and said he would not let him go until he blessed him. 

Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

Struggling with our faith and with other humans is biblical.  Jacob is renamed Israel, which means "wrestles with God." But like Jacob, we might have to wrestle a little...in the wee hours until daybreak. Just hold on tightly, plant your feet...your blessing is at the end of that tussle! Even if a few things get knocked out of place a little in the process...the blessings of God will still manifest and the sun will rise. #daybreak

Genesis 32:22-31

Jacob Wrestles With God

²² That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. ²³ After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. ²⁴ So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. ²⁵ When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. ²⁶ Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

²⁷ The man asked him, “What is your name?”

“Jacob,” he answered.

²⁸ Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel,^[a] because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome.”

²⁹ Jacob said, “Please tell me your name.”

But he replied, “Why do you ask my name?” Then he blessed him there.

³⁰ So Jacob called the place Peniel,^[b] saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.”

³¹ The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel,^[c] and he was limping because of his hip.

Photo from House of God blog