Jacob had tricked his brother out of his birthright,

was forced to leave his home in order to escape the anger of Esau,

and was now returning to his homeland with two wives he had snuck away from their father in the night.

I would say every night of sleep had its fair share of fitfulness,

but one night in particular an angel, or God Himself, appears.

And on this night, Jacob won't stop wrestling until he receives some kind of blessing.

As the wrestling match unfolds,

Jacob's hip is injured.

The tendon of his hip (which I've read is the strongest tendon in the human body) was "wrenched" out of place.

Isn't it just like God to break us in the very place we might find our own source of strength and independence?

Finally, morning comes, and Jacob has a new name, a blessing from God, and a limp.

When we wrestle with God, we are changed from the inside out.

Sometimes we wake up to discover we aren't even the same person anymore.

It's almost as if we have a new name.

Sometimes, we realize we walk differently, we're weaker on our own, we have a true sense of just how much we need God in order to make it through the next day.

But the one thing about wrestling with God that I love the most is this,

"When we have the resilience and the courage to keep wrestling through all of our doubts, questions, and fears,

He is faithful to bring about a blessing from our struggle."

I don't know about you, but I have wrestled with God.

I still do from time to time.

And I love the fact that God is big enough to handle our struggles with heartache,

our questions about His plans,

our wrestling with our past mistakes.

I love that at the end of all of our spiritually tossing and turning God promises a blessing.

I'm leaning on the story of Jacob today.

Even if I walk with a limp at the end of my struggle,

I know I won't walk alone.

He is with me.

And He is with you too.

You can read the story of Jacob's wrestling in Genesis 32:22-32.