Trust God for the Help You Need

“Then the man said, ‘Let me go, for the dawn is breaking!’ But Jacob said, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’”

Genesis 32:26 (NLT)

When God allows a crisis in your life, he doesn’t solve it immediately. Look at the life of Jacob. When he and God had their wrestling match in Genesis 32, God could have overpowered Jacob and ended things instantly—but instead, they wrestled until dawn. Why did God let the struggle continue?

You might be asking God the same question about your life. God lets your struggle continue because he wants to see how serious you are about seeking him. If God answered every prayer immediately, you’d begin to think he was a vending machine: Put in a prayer and pull out whatever you need.

For example, if God instantly bailed you out of a financial crisis caused by your own poor choices, then tomorrow you might overspend again. You wouldn’t learn discipline or how to manage your money. God will help you get out of debt, but he wants to build your character in the process.

If you’re in a crisis right now, don’t give up! Don’t run from it. Your problems didn’t show up overnight. You may have some ingrained patterns, poor responses, and unhealthy habits that have built up over the years. God won’t remove them all at once. But there is hope: God is with you and he is for you. When you ask God for help and trust him to provide, you will experience the peace of his wisdom and blessing.