“So Jacob was left alone, and a Man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the Man saw that He could not overpower him, He touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the Man.

Then the Man said, ‘Let me go, for it is daybreak.’

But Jacob replied, ‘I will not let you go unless you bless me.’”  ~ Gen 32:24+

Christians do not get a grip on themselves when life spins out of control. No. They get a grip on God and thus get a grip on themselves. If you want to get a grip on yourself, you do so by first getting a grip on God. All else will follow. 

Yaakov – Jacob – already had the blessing when he wrestled with God. Jacob had it because, he had previously wheedled it out of Isaac/”Esau”. In fact, not only did he have it, he had everything he could want in life, humanly speaking. He was a zillionaire by the standards of his day (Gen 32). 

So why wrestle all night with God to get the blessing again?

My Two Cents: 

Because the blessing, though his, was tainted. Jacob had used trickery to get it. And now, at Peniel, as he awaited the arrival of Esau with 400 men, Jacob knew his past might catch up with him. Esau could easily charge him with having stolen the blessing. And Jacob would have no defense, unless . . .

Unless the blessing could be redeemed.

~ Yes, the blessing needed to be redeemed.

Meaning, Jacob needed to receive the blessing from the Lord and be free of his 20+ year, guilty conscience. 

Meaning, life is not so much taking from the world as it is receiving from the Lord. 

Jacob wanted to undo his’ prior taking of the blessing and now instead receive it from the hand of the Lord.

And that is why he wrestled all night. However a surprising thing happened in addition. Not only was the blessing redeemed, so too was Jacob. He himself came to be transformed and renamed as Israel, aka God struggles for him.

~ Jacob found redemption by not by getting a grip on the blessing or any number of worldly possessions, but by getting a grip on God. Things come best, when they come from the Lord (Eccles 3:11). 

Struggling with anything in life? Get a grip on the Lord first, before you get a grip on yourself. 

When Esau was forty years old, he married Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Basemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite; and they brought grief to Isaac and Rebekah (Gen. 26:34-35).

House and wealth are inherited from fathers,
    but a prudent wife is from the Lord (Prov. 19:14).