Prayerful Wrestling

Hello again and welcome. Our Daily Bread would like to encourage you today with a reading titled Prayerful Wrestling and it was written by Arthur Jackson. Dennis' life was transformed after someone gave him a New Testament.

Reading it captivated him and it became his constant companion. Within six months, two life-changing events occurred in his life. He placed his faith in Jesus for the forgiveness of his sins and he was diagnosed with a brain tumor after experiencing severe headaches. Because of the unbearable pain, he became bedridden and unable to work. One painful sleepless night, he found himself crying out to God.

Sleep finally came at 4.30 am. Bodily pain can cause us to cry out to God, but other excruciating life circumstances also compel us to run to him. Centuries before Dennis' night of wrestling, a desperate Jacob faced off with God in Genesis chapter 32. For Jacob, it was unfinished family business. He had wronged his brother Esau and he feared that payback was imminent. In seeking God's help in this difficult situation, Jacob encountered God face to face and emerged from it a changed man.

And so did Dennis. After pleading with God in prayer, Dennis was able to stand up after being bedridden and the doctor's examination showed no signs of the tumor. Although God doesn't always choose to miraculously heal us, we're confident that he always hears our prayers and will give us what we need for our situation.

In our desperation we offer sincere prayers to God and leave the results to him. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is from Genesis chapter 32 verses 24 through 32. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man.

Then the man said, Let me go, for it is daybreak. But Jacob replied, I will not let you go unless you bless me. The man asked him, What is your name? Jacob, he answered. Then the man said, Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome. Jacob said, Please tell me your name.

But he replied, Why do you ask my name? Then he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared.

The sun rose above him as he passed Peniel, and he was limping because of his hip. Therefore, to this day the Israelites do not eat the tendon attached to the socket of the hip, because the socket of Jacob's hip was touched near the tendon. Now let's pray. Dear Lord, just like Dennis, we can sometimes find ourselves wrestling in prayer in desperate situations that gracefully nudge us to cry out to you. And when we can't seem to find the words to say and hit a wall, may we cling to you in faith and teach us Lord to remain on our knees and not give up. And it's in Jesus name we pray. Amen. This encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.