Thank you for joining me on my blog today. A special hello to those of you who have joined my newsletter list from my YouVersion verse of the day video.
For those of you who may not have seen the video, it’s tagged below my post.
But for now, let’s get back to the passage we’ve been unpacking.
For the last couple of weeks, we have been delving into the topics of waiting on God and wrestling with God through the story of Jacob as he prepares to meet his brother Esau.
Today’s post is the third (and final) part of the story: walking with a holy limp through life’s uncertainties.
Let’s go back to Genesis 32
So, here we are in the heat of the moment: The intense wrestling match between God and Jacob.
Jacob’s hip has been dislocated. He realizes his utter incompetence and powerlessness. He doesn’t have the strength to fight—but he does something far more profound: He clings to God.
He is defeated and yet demonstrates a defiant faith. He is overpowered, and yet learns radical reliance on God.
Scripture then records an interesting conversation between the Man (God) and Jacob.
The man asked him, “What is your name?”
“Jacob,” he answered.
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 32:27-29)
Now, obviously, the Man knew Jacob’s name. He even knew Jacob’s dad’s and grandfather’s names. But just as God asks Adam and Eve in the garden, “Where are you?” (even though He knew their exact GPS coordinates), He asks Jacob, “What is your name?” because it gives Jacob the pause he needs to acknowledge his shortcomings.
When Isaac had asked for his name 20 years earlier, Jacob had deceived his father by responding, “Esau.”
Now, when God asks for his name, he says only one word. It’s the truth. And it’s also a confession.
“Jacob.”
And that was the turning point. Jacob came to a place of real repentance.
Jacob means deceiver. And all his life, he had lived up to that name. He had deceived his brother. He had deceived his dad.
But finally, Jacob acknowledges his flaws.
And then the Man renames him.
Jacob became Israel. The deceiver became the one who struggles with God and overcomes.
Friends, are we walking in the newness of our identity? Or are we holding on to old and tired labels that have no bearing on our lives?
The starting point is to confess our old names. To acknowledge just how broken we are.
In wrestling with God, in the struggle and surrender, we receive a new identity.
2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
For the old to go and the new to come, we need to come to a place of surrender.
Jacob shows us the blessing of being defeated—of being divinely dislocated—by God.
After the intense wrestling match, the scene shifts. We see a physically weak Jacob, limping toward his brother, Esau.
But he is no longer afraid.
Instead of his initial strategies of putting his people and possessions ahead of him, he walks with a holy limp to the front of the line.
Scripture reminds us that in our weakness, God’s strength is made perfect. Jacob was a living example of that truth.
In walking with a limp, we learn to relearn our rhythms and reorder our priorities.
No longer can we run with self-reliance. No longer do we trust our strategies or our stuff.
But we walk with a limp, knowing that leaning on the Lord is the only way forward…
As we radically rely on Him, He renews our strength.
Today, like Jacob, you may feel like you’re alone in facing your weighty, too-heavy-to-bear situation. There is uncertainty about our health, work, finances, marriage, or our kids’ future.
Like Jacob, we pivot from plan A to B to C with some prayer and panic sprinkled in for good measure.
But God says to us today: wait on me, wrestle with me on holy ground, walk with a limp because you understand the blessing of being weak.
I had the incredible opportunity to share the Verse of the Day on YouVersion.
Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.
