Encountering God in a Wrestle.

This left Jacob all alone in the camp, and a man came and wrestled with him until the dawn began to break. Genesis 32:24

I had a dream one night, I got up knowing the dream was super important and I needed to take time out to search and find the meaning. The challenge was that I did not want to go through the process of praying, meditating, thinking, asking questions, waiting for a response, and more – just to figure out what the dream meant. So guess what I did? I googled the meaning. Yes, I went on Google in search of the meaning of my dream. While at it, the scripture was dropped in my heart, “ woe to those who go down to Egypt for help”. Immediately I stopped my search on Google, I knew that was not how God wanted me to respond to my dream. Don’t get me wrong, google has a role to play but in this case, my dream was an invitation, an invitation to seek and encounter God but because I did not want to go through the intense process I call wrestling, I decided to take a shortcut.

One of the definitions of the word wrestle is to engage in deep thought, consideration, or debate.

In my journey as a believer, one important lesson I’m learning constantly is that we encounter God in the places where we wrestle. By wrestle I don’t mean the physical act of trying to throw someone down, but the art of engaging in deep thought, consideration, or debate. I’ve learned that God allows such opportunities because when we engage in deep thought, seeking answers, direction, clarification, and more, we don’t just find the light we need, we encounter Him on that journey. It took a couple of days of focused meditation, time spent praying, and reading through my journal for me to understand what my dream meant. But I did not just understand the dream, I started to understand the pattern through which God communicates with me. I got more than just an interpretation, I got to understand my relationship with my Father better.

In our text today, we see Jacob’s encounter begins with him wrestling with a man after he was left alone. Jacob wrestled when he was alone and did so all night. This indicates that this kind of wrestling that leads to an encounter with God requires time, focus, energy, and a determination to stay the course until you encounter light. It is not a very comfortable process and very few engage in it.

As we grow in our walk with God, He gives us opportunities to encounter Him. These opportunities come in unanswered questions, dreams that need interpretation, and challenges that seem to defy our current theology. In these areas, He’s seeking those who would wrestle – engage in deep thought, consideration, or debate, those who will say like Jacob Lord I will not let go until you show up. He’s looking for those who would pray, read the word, spend time in meditation, and ask Him questions, those who would engage in the process until they encounter new dimensions in Him.

But the challenge most times is that we would rather take shortcuts. We google, we call, and we try to get answers in the fastest and easiest way possible. And even when we don’t find what we’re searching for, we fail to see it as an opportunity to encounter him. It was Moses’s search to understand why the bush was burning without being consumed that led to an encounter with God. Is God beckoning on you? What questions, circumstances, dreams, or concerns have bugged your heart, could that be His invitation to you? I pray you to accept the invitation. Seek till you find, wrestle till you encounter Him, you will never remain the same when you do!