The effect of this touch continued with Jacob for the rest his life, and he limped always after that. Now, he was an old man anyway, but they were surprisingly active in those patriarchal days, even in old age. Maybe he couldn't run anymore. We don't read that it was painful to him, but it was a limitation. It was a hindrance, and it was part of this encounter. God put a limitation on him, even as he was prevailed upon. He puts a limitation on us when we are really earnest in prayer. Even the duty and the delightful duty, but the arduous duty of prayer is a limitation. When you and I decide to pray more and to pray more earnestly and to labour in prayer, that is itself a limp, a limitation. You may be losing, as in Jacob's case, a whole night. You may be losing half an hour a day, or more, an hour a day. Where are you going to get it from? It's your restraint, a limitation on you. And yet, it makes us two or three times the person we were, because God can use us all the more. Maybe you need to pray especially hard for sanctification. Maybe there's a problem, a sin, a defect which you can't overcome, and you are going to have to pray more and more earnestly about it. But it won't be a loss; it won't really be a limp in the end because in answer to your prayer, God will overcome your sin. You will have to make the effort and he will give you the strength. We will gladly take on whatever burden God attaches to the activity of prayer, in order to have his blessing.
Prayer is a great privilege – and often it is relatively easy and we thank God and approach him with confidence. But sometimes for various reasons it is immensely hard. We have to mean this more. Prayer is not entirely unconditional. This kind of experience may come often for some. You don’t give up, but you persist the more.
This applies to the believer. We may still have unbelief in our hearts and God wishes to purge it out of us. Often prayer starts with a seeming setback and we become aware of our small faith. Actually we have probably been in that state for some time and it hasn’t mattered to us; now it does. Our faith needs to be exercised, and it is exercised when we can proceed only on the basis of faith. God says, ‘I will be prevailed on’ but only if you seek me with all your heart. The Christian will go through many a crisis, many a deep need, for himself as well as for others. God insists on deep prayer. What a privilege prayer is! That if you strive God will allow you to obtain the blessing. Wrestling has to do with everything important. When you desire holiness, you are going to have to wrestle; you must wrestle for God’s help in hard service. God allows some things to be hard.
But this also applies to the seeker. If we are seeking the Lord, we must not let anything put us off. It may seem that God is opposing us and trying to stop us finding him, prevent us obtaining forgiveness, and seeking to turn us away, but we must cling on. You are not trusting him sufficiently. There is such a thing as trusting him, and clinging on by faith. So when in some desperate situation, never give up prayer. Some never like to be alone. They fill their life with meetings, entertainment, distractions, so that the deep questions of life never get too close to them. But we must face up to our great problem: our unforgiven sin, our alienation from God, our powerlessness to defeat death on our own. It is all so obvious but we are good at shutting these things out. You must get on your own to pray, even if have to get up in the middle of the night.
In the same way the seeker must press forward. Some make Christian conversion so easy. ‘Say a prayer’ they tell us, and you will be saved. But in the case of Jacob, he has to ask earnestly, and his earnest is tested to the limit. He can only cling on.
Sometimes God touches us so powerfully that we remember it all our lives; there is something we lose and never get back. It may be the forfeiture of some privilege. God may take something away to keep you humble. Paul was given a thorn in the flesh to counterbalance the great revelations he received. Jacob lost some of his mobility, so that he became one who needed a little help. He is taught that only when he is humbled and we prevail with God. Forebears used to love to deal with this.