PENIEL

PENIEL:
It means face to face with God...  Jacob was involved in a wrestling match with God in Genesis 32...
I have had many nights of late wrestling with God.  Wrestling with my own failures, my desires, and with what God wants to do in my life.  

I remember wrestling with my dad as a child.  I could never beat him.  It was play wrestling and it was fun, the contact that was made was needed to show love, concern, and power.  My dad was stronger than me but he showed restraint in our wrestling, he could have squished me like a bug.  The contact showed that he would be my protector.  I could look him in the eyes and see the love and concern he had for me.  He was my dad. 

The wrestling that goes on between me and my Heavenly Father is in some ways quite the same.  Let me explain our wrestling...  God loves His children and He can't wait to get His hands on us.  His finger prints can be found all over our lives.  He created us, so on the inside as hard as we try to forget Him we can't, because He put us together with His hands.  The world we live in shows evidence that He is in control.  So their is this internal knowing and this external seeing and we wrestle.  We wrestle because of love, care, and concern.  He won't relent until He has convinced us that He is in love with us, that He shows us His power.  All He wants in return is our devotion.  Some time to wrestle with us.  

Don't be afraid to look God in the face even in your sin, because He has the sin cure...  Jesus!