Prayer – Why it’s a Good Thing to Wrestle and Limp
I walk with a limp.
You probably wouldn’t notice it if you met me, but it’s there.
Like all hip injuries it bothers me more on some days than it does on others. But that’s okay, the days it bothers me I’m reminded of God’s unfailing love and faithfulness.
Do you walk with a limp?
If you’ve ever had fear bring you to your knees for a night of intense prayer, a night of wrestling with God, you just may walk with a limp, too.
Jacob was returning home to a brother who hated him, who had threatened to kill him, and he was afraid. He began the night in prayer:
O Lord, You told me, ‘Return to your own land and to your relatives.’ And You promised me, ‘I will treat you kindly.’ I am not worthy of all the unfailing love and faithfulness You have shown to me, your servant. When I left home and crossed the Jordan River, I owned nothing except a walking stick. Now my household fills two large camps! O Lord, please rescue me from the hand of my brother, Esau. I am afraid that he is coming to attack me, along with my wives and children. Genesis 32:9b-11
After this initial prayer, Jacob got up and moved his family to a place he hoped would be safer for them.
And when Jacob was all alone, Genesis 32:24ff says that “he wrestled with ‘a man’ until the dawn began to break.When the man saw that he would not win the match, he touched Jacob’s hip and wrenched it out of its socket.”
Fear can do that –
It can make us wrestle through exhaustion unwilling to give up.
When things like illness, infertility, broken relationships, financial hardships, unemployment–life storms loom large, dark, and threatening . . . and we wrestle.
Like Jacob refusing, “I will not let go unless you bless me.” v.26
It doesn’t say Jacob insisted on a promise of protection or prosperity for his family.
He asked for a blessing.
And in v. 29 it says, “Then he blessed Jacob there. Jacob named the place Peniel (which means “face of God”), for he said, “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been spared.”
And the blessing – seeing God face to face.
Prayer Wrestling – Blessed and Limping
Jacob cried out to God so intently that it caused a wrestling match of prayer that ended with a blessing and a limp.
V. 31 – “And he (Jacob) was limping because of his hip.”
I limp. Do you limp?
I’ve spent nights in pleading prayer. Sometimes like Jacob whose brother, Esau, forgave and embraced him the Lord has answered my prayers with a huge “yes.” Sometimes the answer has been “not now.”
But the blessing – the blessing is always seeing the face of God. Feeling His presence. Knowing that He invites our prayers even when they’re filled with fear, maybe especially when they’re filled with fear.
Because it is in those moments of wrestling prayer that we feel Him most. When He touches us and blesses us . . . and we limp.
We limp to remember and share the blessing of hope found in God’s presence.
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