Struggles with God

"Then he said, 'Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.'" Genesis 32:30

After Jacob spent all night wrestling with God, he is given a new name, Israel, which means "He strives with God". God wants us to wrestle with Him, to engage him, to seek him, even in anger. How many times have we read something in the Bible we don't like, or something happened in our lives that made us angry with God, and we just brushed it off and threw it under the rug? Brothers and sisters, we must not ignore our struggles with God because He is anxious to wrestle through them with us. The ways of God can seem unjust to our perspective. So let us ask why. Let us bring our difficulties before the Lord and not flee in fear that any controversy we have with God will offend him. To the one who struggled with Him, he gave a new name. We likewise, when we engage him, when we cast our sin and our anxieties and our fears and doubts upon him, when we stay up all night pleading and fighting with him, we are likewise given the name of Christ.

Lord Jesus, let us enter into your presence in our struggles and doubts. Give us the courage to engage you and wrestle with you through our problems!