What new name did Jacob receive after wrestling with God at Peniel?

The Answer

On the night before facing his estranged brother Esau, Jacob wrestled with a mysterious man until daybreak. The man renamed him Israel, meaning he had struggled with God and with humans and had overcome. Jacob walked away with both a new name and a limp — permanently marked by the encounter.

Jacob had spent a lifetime grasping — his brother's heel, his brother's birthright, his father's blessing, his uncle's flocks. But on the banks of the Jabbok, he finally grabbed hold of the only One worth holding and refused to let go: 'I will not let you go unless you bless me.'

God did not scold that desperation. He rewarded it. The schemer became Israel, the man marked by God.

Some of the most honest praying you will ever do sounds like wrestling. Bring God your stubborn, clinging, refuse-to-let-go faith. He can handle it — and He often blesses precisely there, at the point of struggle.