How Do I Make God Real to Me? The Story of Jacob’s Struggle with God

God wants to be real to us–he wants us to see him through our own eyes, not through the eyes of our parents, our friends, a person in a church, or the world around us. Today’s story is about a guy named Jacob who discovered God for himself by getting into a fight with him. Check out this Mini Quiet Time episode to learn from the story of Jacob that God becomes real to us when we stop running from who we are.

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I myself will see him with my own eyes. I’ll see him, and he won’t be a stranger to me. How my heart longs for that day!

Job 19:27 NIrV

In great fear and distress Jacob divided the people who were with him into two groups, and the flocks and herds and camels as well. [8] He thought, “If Esau comes and attacks one group, the group that is left may escape.” [9] Then Jacob prayed, “O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, LORD, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ [11] Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children.” [21] So Jacob’s gifts went on ahead of him, but he himself spent the night in the camp.

Genesis 32:7-9,11,21 NIV

So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. [25] 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.

Genesis 32:24-25 NIV

“Jacob had been involved with God all of his life, but he never really learned to rely on him. Instead, he counted on his ability to deceive and manipulate people to get his own way. Until he dealt with the unfinished business of his deceitful character, his relationship with God could never be genuine or intimate. God decided that the only way to change Jacob was to take the fight to him. He wrestled Jacob physically in the same way he might wrestle with us spiritually. The struggle was intense for Jacob and the struggle will be just as difficult when God takes the fight to us. He will use every relationship, circumstance, and event in our lives to resolve our unfinished business and inspire us to turn to him. We will learn that God is much more than a quiet time of prayer and Bible study. He is much more than church attendance or a willingness to volunteer. He is a God with a very tangible and real involvement in our lives that will be felt as he changes us.”

He’s Not Who You Think He Is: Dropping Your Assumptions and Discovering God for Yourself, Russ Ewell

Then the man said, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.” But Jacob replied, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” [27] The man asked him, “What is your name?” “Jacob,” he answered. [28] 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.”

Genesis 32:26-28 NIV