[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":4},["ShallowReactive",2],{"reading-0528":3},"MAY 28\r\nI will not let thee go, except thou bless me ... and he blessed him\r\n\r\nthere (Gen. 32:26,29).\r\nJacob got the victory and the blessing not by wrestling, but by clinging. His limb was out of joint and he could struggle no\r\nlonger, but he would not let go. Unable to wrestle, he wound his\r\narms around the neck of his mysterious antagonist and hung all his helpless weight upon him, until at last he conquered.\r\nWe will not get victory in prayer until we too cease our\r\nstruggling, giving up our own will and throw our arms about our Father's neck in clinging faith.\r\nWhat can puny human strength take by force out of the hand of\r\nOmnipotence? Can we wrest blessing by force from God? It is never the violence of wilfulness that prevails with God. It is the might\r\nof clinging faith, that gets the blessing and the victories. It is\r\nnot when we press and urge our own will, but when humility and   trust unite in saying, \"Not my will, but Thine.\" We are strong with   God only in the degree that self is conquered and is dead. Not by wrestling, but by clinging can we get the blessing. --J.R. Miller.\r\nAn incident from the prayer life of Charles H. Usher (illustrating \"soul-cling\" as a hindrance to prevailing prayer): \"My little boy   was very ill. The doctors held out little hope of his recovery. I\r\nhad used all the knowledge of prayer which I possessed on his\r\nbehalf, but he got worse and worse. This went on for several weeks.\r\n\"One day I stood watching him as he lay in his cot and I saw that\r\nhe could not live long unless he had a turn for the better. I said\r\nto God, 'O God, I have given much time in prayer for my boy and he gets no better; I must now leave him to Thee, and I will give\r\nmyself to prayer for others. If it is Thy will to take him, I choose Thy will-I surrender him entirely to Thee.'\r\n\"I called in my dear wife, and told her what I had done. She shed\r\nsome tears, but handed him over to God. Two days afterwards a man of God came to see us. He had been very interested in our boy\r\nFrank, and had been much in prayer for him.\r\n\"He said, 'God has given me faith to believe that he will recover- have you faith?'\r\n\"I said, 'I have surrendered him to God, but I will go again to God\r\nregarding him.' I did; and in prayer I discovered that I had faith\r\nfor his recovery. From that time he began to get better. It was the\r\n'soul-cling' in my prayers which had hindered God answering; and if I had continued to cling and had been unwilling to surrender him,\r\nI doubt if my boy would be with me today.\r\n\"Child of God! If you want God to answer your prayers, you must be prepared to follow the footsteps of 'our father Abraham,' even to\r\nthe Mount of Sacrifice.\" (See Rom. 4:12.)",1783499793066]