Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from radical.net.

Genesis chapter 32, verse 28,

Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel,

for you have striven with God and with men, and have prevailed.

Wow, what a statement as Jacob's name is transformed to Israel after a night of striving

or wrestling with God, which is what his name means, one who wrestles with God.

And there's a lot we could talk about in this passage, this verse, about what that means.

But the big picture that I want to encourage you with today and lead us to pray according

to today is the fact that you and I have clearly been designed by God for communion with him at a deep level,

at a personal level. When you think about your time alone with God, which I hope you have time set aside, much like Jesus talks about

in Matthew chapter 6, where you have a place that you go to, a closet, so to speak, apart from

everyone and everything else, where you meet alone with God at a particular time.

And as you view that time, don't see it as just kind of checking off a box,

going through motions, maybe reading a chapter or more of the Bible

and spending some time in prayer, just kind of listing off some things.

No, picture that time

as deeply personal time with God, where you're calling out to God, crying out to God with all

the things that are heavy on your heart, knowing that he hears you the other day in our

family worship and our home home one of the kids was

just talking about how he was reminded reading one of the Psalms that there he is laying in his bed

reading the Bible and praying and God like God himself the God of the universe is listening to him and hearing

his cries. I want to encourage you to see yourself in communion with God during those times,

...