With God, we win when we lose and refuse to let go.
Jacob spent his life wanting the Father’s blessing—the blessing of Abraham. When he finally met God face to face, he wouldn’t let him go until He blessed him. How did the father bless him? He changed his name. He recognized what God had chosen for Jacob before birth. He called him Israel, a Prince who had struggled with God and man and had prevailed.
Jacob left with a limp from his struggle and confidence in God to meet his brother, his past, and his death. He now believed in the resurrection.
Most of the records of God’s men and women are of their failings at being who God had made them to become. In other words, the promise that is tried fails through our flesh as we are wrestled to a place of either letting go or refusing to let go, unless God blesses our mess.
A promise made is an inheritance given. Life’s struggles are our reduction to receive God’s blessing through faith. It is not our achievement but our displacement from self-reliance that God seeks. There, we decide to forget it, or I will not; I cannot let You go until You bless me.
Why does God discourage us? He does not discourage us; He resists us. God resists the proud. It is our self He will not bless, only Himself, “Blessing, I will bless you.”
