Left alone!” What different emotions these words bring to mind for each of us! To some they mean loneliness and grief, but to others they may mean rest and quiet. To be left alone without God would be too horrible for words, while being left alone with Him is a taste of heaven! And if His followers spent more time alone with Him, we would have spiritual giants again.

Our Master set an example for us. Remember how often He went to be alone with God? And there was a powerful purpose behind His command, “When you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray” (Matthew 6:6).

The greatest miracles of Elijah and Elisha took place when they were alone with God. Jacob was alone with God when he became a prince (Genesis 32:28). In the same way, we too may become royalty and people who are “wondered at” (Zechariah 3:8 KJV). Joshua was alone when the Lord came to him (Joshua 1:1). Gideon and Jephthah were by themselves when commissioned to save Israel (Judges 6:11; 11:29). Moses was by himself at the burning bush (Exodus 3:1–5). Cornelius was praying by himself when the Angel of God came to him (Acts 10:1–4). No one was with Peter on the housetop when he was instructed to go to the Gentiles (Acts 10:9–28). John the Baptist was alone in the wilderness (Luke 1:80), and John the Beloved was alone on the island of Patmos when he was the closest to God (Revelation 1:9).

Earnestly desire to get alone with God. If we neglect to do so, we not only rob ourselves of a blessing but rob others as well, since we will have no blessing to pass on to them. It may mean that we do less outward, visible work, but the work we do will have more depth and power. Another wonderful result will be that people will see “no one except Jesus” (Matthew 17:8) in our lives.

The impact of being alone with God in prayer cannot be overemphasized.

If chosen men had never been alone, In deepest silence open-doored to God, No greatness would ever have been dreamed or done.

If you saw one of the intimates of the King on his knees, you would marvel at the sight. Look! He is in the Audience Chamber. He has a seat set for him among the peers. He is set down among the old nobility of the Empire. The King will not put on his signet ring to seal a command, till his friend has been heard. “Command Me,” the King says to him. “Ask of Me,” He says, “for the things of My sons: command the things to come concerning them!”

And, as if that were not enough, that man-of-all-prayer is still on his knees. He is wrestling there. There is no enemy that I can see, yet he wrestles like a mighty man. What is he doing with such a struggle? Doing? Do you not know what he is doing? He is moving Heaven and earth. He is casting this mountain, and that, into the midst of the sea. He is casting down thrones. He is smiting old empires of time to pieces. Yes, he is wrestling indeed.

ALEXANDER WHYTE

Break through to God, He fully understands Thou art in His dear Hands, To fulfill all His commands, Break through to God! Break through to God, Be dauntless, faithful, strong, E’en though the fight is long, Raise to Him the victor’s song, Break through to God. Break through to God, Though thy heart may quail, And the foe may rail, Calvary’s victory shall not fail, Break through to God!

Looking back over the Welsh Revival about 1904, the Revelation Seth Joshua wrote: “The secret of the Lord was with many even before the blessing came. I know a man, who, for five years, was carried out by the Spirit, and made to weep and pray along the banks of a Welsh river. At last the travail ceased, and calm expectation followed the soul pangs of this man about whom I now write. He lived to see the answer to his heart-cries unto the Lord. He was present in the services in which the first historical incidents took place.”

Break through to God!

In this passage, God is wrestling with Jacob more than Jacob is wrestling with God. The “man” referred to here is the Son of Man—the Angel of the Covenant. It was God in human form, pressing down on Jacob to press his old life from him. And by daybreak God had prevailed, for Jacob’s “hip was wrenched” (v. 25). As Jacob “fell” from his old life, he fell into the arms of God, clinging to Him but also wrestling until his blessing came. His blessing was that of a new life, so he rose from the earthly to the heavenly, the human to the divine, and the natural to the supernatural. From that morning forward, he was a weak and broken man from a human perspective, but God was there. And the Lord’s heavenly voice proclaimed, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome” (v. 28).

Beloved, this should be a typical scene in the life of everyone who has been transformed. If God has called us to His highest and best, each of us will have a time of crisis, when all our resources will fail and when we face either ruin or something better than we have ever dreamed. But before we can receive the blessing, we must rely on God’s infinite help. We must be willing to let go, surrendering completely to Him, and cease from our own wisdom, strength, and righteousness. We must be “crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20) and yet alive in Him. God knows how to lead us to the point of crisis, and He knows how to lead us through it.

Is God leading you in this way? Is this the meaning of your mysterious trial, your difficult circumstances, your impossible situation, or that trying place you cannot seem to move past without Him? But do you have enough of Him to win the victory?

Then turn to Jacob’s God! Throw yourself helplessly at His feet. Die in His loving arms to your own strength and wisdom, and rise like Jacob into His strength and sufficiency. There is no way out of your difficult and narrow situation except at the top. You must win deliverance by rising higher, coming into a new experience with God. And may it bring you into all that is meant by the revelation of “the Mighty One of Jacob” (Isaiah 60:16)! There is no way out but God.

At Your feet I fall, Yield You up my all, To suffer, live, or die For my Lord crucified.