Alone with God

"Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. When he saw that he had not prevailed against him, he touched the socket of his thigh; so the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated while he wrestled with him. Then he said, 'Let me go, for the dawn is breaking.' But he said, 'I will not let you go unless you bless me.'" -Genesis 32.24-26

Jacob has sent everything he has and all of his family across the Jabbok, and he is left alone the night before he will meet his brother Esau. A man comes to him and the two begin to wrestle. The match lasts all night, and as dawn approaches no one has the upper hand. The man dislocates Jacob's thigh, but Jacob refuses to let go until he has been blessed. How often do we approach God this way?

Men, when was the last time you spent all night in prayer to God? Have you ever? It's amazing how we can spend all night staying up and worrying about something, but never pray about it. How many all nighters have you pulled to study or party? What did they accomplish? What blessing did they bring?

What would happen if you gave up an hour of sleep to pray? What would happen if when you woke up in the middle of the night you got up and began to pray? What would happen if you took one night a month and simply dedicated it to prayer? What if you did one night a week?

When we pray, what if we didn't stop until we heard from God? What if we refused to stop praying until we received the blessing of a word from the Lord? How would that shape and mold us?

This approach to God will have a cost, Jacob would walk with a limp the rest of his life. But the cost is well worth the blessing we receive. When we spend time in intentional prayer to God, when we wrestle with Him, we leave changed. Men, let's make it a priority to get alone with God, as often as we can. Let's be intentional about it. Every day find a spot to read the Bible and pray. This blog can be part of that, take what is found here, read it, and pray about it.

Let's work on finding larger chunks of time to spend in prayer. Let's be intentional about making time, maybe Friday or Saturday night, to spend time wrestling with God, and being made holy by Him. And let's be intentional about retreats with God. One thing I'm hoping to be able to do is take a trip every year, just three days, and get alone in the wilderness with God. Time spent alone by the "Jabbok" to wrestle with God and be blessed by Him.

Men, let's get alone with God.

"Iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another."

To God alone be the Glory!

Strength and Honor

I've been blessed with the opportunity to travel to some of the Bible lands. From time to time when I think of it I'll post related pictures that I have.

The Jabbok in present day Jordan.