Struggles With God

– Ponderings:

Last night, I “wrestled” with snippets of dreams and other random thoughts. Do you ever have nights like those? For no reason I can identify, I had a restless night. That got me pondering the Old Testament patriarch Jacob and the night he wrestled with God. To be clear, however, I’m not saying my wrestling was God-related!

The story is told in Genesis 32. “So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.” (Genesis 32:24, NIV). Jacob’s encounter with God at Peniel is one of the most vivid and mysterious stories in Scripture. Alone in the dark, Jacob wrestles, not just with a mysterious “man,” but, as he later learns, with God himself. The struggle lasts all night, leaving Jacob physically marked, yet spiritually transformed.

Jacob’s life up to this moment had been marked by a drive to fulfill his desires—stealing his older brother’s blessing, striving for wealth, and wanting control over others. Yet, in this wrestling match, Jacob is brought to the end of his own strength. He’s gone as far as he can go on his own and the reflection he sees in the mirror isn’t a positive one. The physical struggle mirrors a deeper spiritual reality: Jacob’s need to surrender and trust God.

By morning, Jacob is changed. He limps because of an injury he sustained in the wrestling match, yet he clings to God, refusing to let go without receiving a blessing. God honors Jacob’s tenacity, renaming him Israel, which means “he struggles with God.” This new name marks a turning point in Jacob’s life—a shift from self-reliance to dependence on God.

Like Jacob, we often “wrestle” with God in our own lives. We cry for answers, seek to live the way we want, and struggle to surrender control. These moments can feel exhausting and even painful. Yet, they are also sacred.

When we wrestle with God, we are drawn more closely into his presence. The struggle reveals our need for God and God’s blessing—not always with the answers we expect, but with a deeper relationship with him. Sometimes, like Jacob, we emerge from the struggle with scars—visible or invisible. But these scars remind us that God is with us, in both easy and hard times.

Is there an area of your life where you feel like you’re wrestling with God? When you think about it, is there something God might want to teach you through the struggle? Remember that God meets you in our wrestling—not to defeat you but to bless and transform you.

Prayer: Lord, thank you for meeting me in my struggles. Help me to cling to you, even when the way is unclear and the wrestling feels hard. Teach me to trust your will and to rely on your strength rather than my own. Transform me and bless me as I strive to live according to your purpose instead of my desires. In Jesus’ name, Amen.