What is your name?

Genesis 32:27

A name is a profession and a confession. It is an acknowledgment that we have no power over our family lineage. Our names—like our generational sins, genetics, family history, and family unit—were foisted upon us. We could change our names, like Jacob, and it still wouldn’t change any of those realities about us. Being named outs us as made creatures in a made world. It identifies us as not God, not sovereign, not the one with all the answers, and as much as we hate to admit it, he gets to ask his questions first.

God brings Jacob to a place where he can name the truth about himself, the real truth, not the pretty, packaged, pithy truth that Jacob wants to believe. It is the sweaty, grimy, sore, and dislocated hipbone truth: I am Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham. I am a swindler. A thief who stole his brother’s birthright. I am the one who lied to my father. I am the one who was cheated of the wife he was promised and given a wife he didn’t want. I am he. Jacob.

He told the truth. He told the truth because he couldn’t hear the truth about God’s name until he was honest about his own.

What are some things that keep you trapped in unhealthy cycles of sin or struggle?