February 22, 2005

Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him until the breaking of day. Now when He saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob’s hip was out of join as He wrestled with him. And He said, “Let Me go, for the day breaks.”

But he said, “I will not let You go unless You bless me!”

-Genesis 32:24-26

I can just see Jacob going home to his family after the night of wrestling with the Angel of the Lord. His hair is disheveled and he’s limping. His wife asks him what happens, and Jacob replies, “I just got blessed!”

He was blessed and God built him up strong. It could be that your life is in a place of brokenness and you need to be rebuilt. You can be strong, even in the brokenness.

When I was a kid, I had so many accidents. My mother didn’t know what to do with me. I was always getting into something—sticking my hand somewhere it shouldn’t be, shooting myself in the foot with a BB gun, throwing a butcher knife through my foot, and so on.

One day when I was six years old, I was skating down the sidewalk and I hit a bump that sent me flying. When I got up, my arm was dangling and flopping all around. I remember saying to myself, “I just broke my arm…but, I’m not going to cry.”

So, I went into my house holding my arm and I said, “Mother, I think I broke my arm.” Of course, she screamed and began crying. So she rushes me to the doctor’s office and they put a cast on me. Although, it was kind of cool wearing it at first because everyone wanted to sign it, I had to wear it for six weeks and after all that time I was ready for it to come off.

The day came when the cast came off. I went home and was so happy that I hopped on my little red wagon, and started flying down the same sidewalk, hit another bump, flew off, and broke my arm again!

When I went back to the doctor, he tried to encourage me by saying, “Jack, your arm is going to be stronger where it was broken that even your other arm. It’s going to be strong in that broken place.”

Jacob was crippled, leaning on his staff for the rest of his days, because of his wrestling match with the angel, but he was blessed as the prince of Israel because he was first broken. It is failure that brings about faith in our life, because we can ultimately rise from the rubble and rebuild. To be blessed by God, we must experience brokenness in our lives.

FAILURE MEANS WE CAN BEGIN AGAIN STRONGER THAN

EVER IN THE BROKEN PLACES.