Who will not let you go?

Gordon Kennedy October 19, 2022 0 0

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Genesis 32: 22–32 (NRSVA)

22 The same night he got up and took his two wives, his two maids, and his eleven children, and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. 23 He took them and sent them across the stream, and likewise everything that he had. 24 Jacob was left alone; and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he did not prevail against Jacob, he struck him on the hip socket; and Jacob’s hip was put out of joint as he wrestled with him. 26 Then he said, ‘Let me go, for the day is breaking.’ But Jacob said, ‘I will not let you go, unless you bless me.’ 27 So he said to him, ‘What is your name?’ And he said, ‘Jacob.’ 28 Then the man said, ‘You shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed.’ 29 Then Jacob asked him, ‘Please tell me your name.’ But he said, ‘Why is it that you ask my name?’ And there he blessed him. 30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, ‘For I have seen God face to face, and yet my life is preserved.’ 31 The sun rose upon him as he passed Penuel, limping because of his hip. 32 Therefore to this day the Israelites do not eat the thigh muscle that is on the hip socket, because he struck Jacob on the hip socket at the thigh muscle.

If we do not have, because we do not ask (James 4:2), it may be that we are not blessed because we have let go.

PRAYER:

Father,

We are often tempted to thank you for our strength and our ability.

We have overcome the steep pathways of doubt,

We have struggled against the enemy of despair,

We, yes even we, have triumphed over our enemy’s wrestling.

We have gained riches for ourselves,

We have gathered a community which depends upon us,

We, yes even we, have something in our hands to offer you, of which we can be proud.

Open our blind eyes, Lord,

Show us the bitterness of this temptation.

Forgive us for those days when we hold out our hand to you,

Believing that you need to hold onto us.

Turn us right around,

Hold out your hand to us,

Teach us that we need to be taken hold of by you.

When we give thanks to you,

May it be for your reaching out to us in Jesus.

When we did not know that we needed your blessing,

You came seeking us and desiring to bless us.

Before we imagined that your Son, your beloved Son,

Would take hold of our hand, you had already planned this.

In Jesus, you wrestle with us, until we submit to your blessing us.

Father,

When we seek an easy life, free from wrestling with you,

Keep hold of us. Do not let us go until you bless us.

Keep hold of us until you feel our hand beginning to grip yours.

Work in us this good work

That we would hold onto you until you bless us.

Write upon our lives a new name,

This one will not let go until God blesses them.

Father,

May our song of thanksgiving be to you,

You have not let go of us,

You have blessed us.

Keep us faithful, persevering in you,

Until you bless us.