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Sermon Illustrations

Our praying should be like the story of Jacob wrestling with God in Genesis 32. They wrestled all night and toward morning, Jacob had the angel in a full Nelson grip. The angel said, “Jacob, let me go.” The mighty Angel of God could have tossed Jacob off in a heartbeat, but God was teaching Jacob (and us) a valuable lesson about the power of persistent, tenacious praying.

Imagine Jacob hanging onto that angel. He said, “I will not let thee except thou bless me.” So the angel said, “Okay, your name has been Jacob (which means “grabber”). From now on you will be named Israel (which means prince of God).

Just as Jacob wrestled with God for His blessing, even so you must wrestle with God through prayer during times of difficult trials and cheerful times.

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