Hanging Onto God

For years, one of my favorite passages to preach out of was Genesis chapter 32, where Jacob is at the Jabbok wrestling with God in prayer. The trouble was, I preached a head knowledge of that passage before I entered into a heart knowledge of it through extended periods of personal trial and hardship. Incarnational preaching is when the preacher can relate what he is preaching from personal experience aligned with the word of God.

There is a lasting influence through that kind of preaching, and I hope, friends, this message I'm about to give you has a lasting influence upon you personally. The title of my message is Hanging On to God in Prayer, and my text can be found in the book of Genesis in chapter 32. You can turn your Bibles there now, friends, as we peer into the prayer life of a prince with God, the man Jacob.

My homiletical mentor, Dr. Stephen F. Olford, took great delight in saying of Jacob that he was so crooked he could hide behind a corkscrew. And it's true, friends, Jacob was a liar, a cheat, a conniver, and a supplanter who stole his brother's birthright. But Jacob also was a man who learned how to have power with God.

We see this statement about him in the book of Hosea. In Hosea 12.3, we read the startling statement. He took his brother by the heel in the womb, and by his strength he had power with God.

Oh, friends, how that statement challenges me and stirs my heart, for oh, how I long to have power with God as well. All of you are familiar with the story of Jacob who is in fear of his life as his brother Esau comes with 400 men for revenge upon his brother. Jacob gets alone in prayer and wrestles with the angel of God until he has such an experience of God that he is forever changed.

I knew a pastor once on the Isle of Lewis who knew Duncan Campbell, and I asked him to describe this man of revival, Duncan Campbell, to me. This Scottish minister replied, Duncan Campbell was an ordinary man who had had an extraordinary experience with God that forever changed him. And this can be said of Jacob as well, friends.

He was a man forever changed from his experience of God. There are several aspects from Genesis 32 which I want to bring before you today. I will first list them and then expand upon them in the hope that we too can learn how to have a more powerful prayer life with God through experiencing him in prayer.

Let me list these aspects of prayer now, and then I will enlarge upon each head. I don't normally use alliteration for I think it is overdone today, but I see no better way to have this message stick with you than to alliterate it for you. You may wish to jot these down as we proceed.

First, we see number one, the preparation of approaching God in prayer. Number two, the process of seeking God in prayer. Number three, the place of desperation in meeting God in prayer.

Number four, the persistence of hanging on to God in prayer. And lastly, number five, the personal cost of prevailing with God in prayer. Well, friends, let's look at these one by one, shall we? In chapter 32, we see a self-reliant Jacob in his prosperity, and he's trying to work out a dilemma by the use of human means.

And that is what most of us church folks do when we are confronted with a problem. We address it with human methods, human means. That's the main problem with the church today.

It has learned how to get the job done with money and manpower rather than rely on God and holy ghost power. We find Jacob in the beginning of chapter 32, resting on his self-reliance. Look at verses three through five.

And Jacob sent messengers before him to Esau, his brother, unto the land of Seir, the country of Edom. And he commanded them, saying, Thus shall you speak unto my lord Esau. Thy servant Jacob saith thus.

I have sojourned with Laban and stayed there until now. And I have oxen and asses, flocks and menservants and womenservants. And I have sent to tell my lord that I may find grace in thy sight.

So here is a religious man who boasts in what he has and what he has done, just like the rest of us. But it doesn't work this time. For the messengers come back to tell Jacob that Esau is coming hot on his heels with 400 men.

Now this makes the blood drain out of Jacob's face, and it makes his knees wobbly, for he now has a problem too big to be solved by money and manpower. Look at verse seven. Then Jacob was greatly afraid and distressed.

Jacob realizes his only hope is to turn to God in prayer. And it is here where we enter into our five aspects of prayer which I previously listed for you. Let's review these one by one.

Number one, the preparation of approaching God in prayer. Oh friends, how little the church understands this principle today. It's the main reason why we do not see revival, because we do not know how to pray corporately in approaching God in prayer.

Look at how Jacob prepares himself to approach God in prayer. Look at verses nine through twelve. And Jacob said, O God of my father Abraham, and God of my father Isaac, the Lord which saideth unto me, Return unto thy country and to thy kindred, and I will deal well with thee.

Let me pause here friends. We see Jacob address God while maintaining a high view of him. He is the great God of Abraham and of Isaac, the Lord.

Jacob prepares himself to approach God with a high view of God, foremost in his prayer. Today we have put God on man's level, and we talk to him like a man. Jacob knows better.

He has a high view of God. Now look at the next step in his preparation. This is seen in verse 10.

I am not worthy in the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which thou hast showed unto thy servant. For with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands. Allow me to pause here friends.

Jacob prepares himself in approaching God in prayer through humility and thankfulness, and we should do no less in our approach to God in prayer. So we see this preparation of Jacob as he begins to approach God in prayer by maintaining a high view of God and humbling himself in humility and thankfulness before thrice holy God. Now let's look at aspect number two, the process of seeking God in prayer.

Next we see Jacob cry out to God to deliver him. Deliver me, I pray thee, from the hand of my brother. Let me pause here, friends.

What Jacob is saying to God here is that he acknowledges that his problem is too big for him, and he needs God to fix it for him, to deliver him. He is asking God to work. His self-reliance is shattered to pieces by his fear and distress.

He knows he must earnestly seek the face of God in prayer, so he begins the process of seeking God in prayer. Next take note that Jacob also reminds God of his promises to him. This is strategic in approaching God in prayer, friends.

Look at verse 12, And thou saidest, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. Here Jacob reminds God of what he has promised to him. He is standing on the promises of God in prayer.

Oh, friends, what a difference our prayer lives would have if we applied these principles to our approach in preparing ourselves to God in prayer, if we earnestly sought his face and remind him of what he has promised us, that his reputation is at stake, if I may so speak. Now look at this next aspect of prayer in number three, the place of desperation in meeting God in prayer. I truly believe, friends, that the only prayer God hears is desperate prayer.

Look at the desperation of Hannah and how she pleaded with her God for a son. God answered her desperate prayer with the prophet Samuel. God hears desperate prayer, not casual prayer or complacent prayer, but the prayers that are soaked with desperation and perspiration.

Look at verse 24, And Jacob was left alone. In other words, in the previous verses, Jacob is getting his house in order by moving his family out in the dead of night so they would not be seen, and now he could be alone in prayer. Jacob is now at his Jabbok, his personal crisis.

He has finally come to the place of desperation. How about you, friend? Have you ever come face to face with your Jabbok, your personal crisis with God? Have you crossed your Rubicon? Oh, how I remember wrestling with God at my own Jabbok. I was on my face in utter desperation one afternoon until I finally had a breakthrough with God.

We see the place of desperation in the rest of verse 24, And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. Oh, what a wrestling match that was in that place of desperate prayer. If you've wrestled with God, you know that place of desperation as well.

Now look at our fourth aspect of prayer, the persistence of hanging on to God in prayer. Look at verse 26, And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me.

This is the persistence in prayer or the importunity in prayer that our Lord Jesus spoke of in the parable of the man awakened in the night to give bread for a friend, and it was his importunity that prevailed, as well the story of the old woman and the judge who settled her case only by her pestering of him. So too, we must pester God in prayer and not let go until we receive the answer to our prayer. God smiles at persistent prayer.

I can promise you that, friend. This is the principle of hanging on to God in prayer like a desperate Jacob who won't give up and won't let go until he receives the blessing. Now let us look at this last aspect of prayer.

Number five, the personal cost of prevailing with God in prayer. Look at verses 28 through 31. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel, for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men and hast prevailed.

Let me pause here, friends. Remember earlier when I read you that verse from Hosea, speaking of Jacob as a man who had power with God and how that challenged me and stirred me? Oh, friends, that same power is available to the man or woman hungry enough for a deeper experience of God in prayer. Now look at verse 31 to see the personal cost of prevailing with God in prayer.

And as he passed over Penuel, the sun rose upon him, and he halted upon his thigh. For the rest of his life, he walked with a cane, and every step he took he winced in pain as a reminder of that tremendous night of prayer. The cost of prayer is a topic seldom mentioned in our churches today.

Dr. Stephen Ofer taught me how to pray. He taught me how to preach. And he drilled into me over and over again the following words, what cost counts and what counts costs.

Now that's true, friends, in every aspect of life, whether it's academic learning or a career path, what cost counts and what counts cost. There is a cost involved in anything worthwhile, especially in the life of prayer. Now, there you have it.

I have given you the five aspects of prayer as seen in our passage today. Now, what will you do about it? Let us pray.