Deceptive Hope

It was to save Jacob from deceptive hope that God confronted him that night on the bank of the river. To save him from self-trust it was necessary for God to conquer him, to wrest control away from him, to take His great power and rule with a rod of love. Charles Wesley, the sweet singer of England, with a spiritual penetration rare even among advanced Christians, wrote from the mouth of Jacob what he conceived to be his prayer as he wrestled with God at the ford of Jabbok:My strength is gone, my nature dies;I sink beneath Thy weighty hand;Faint to revive, and fall to rise:I fall, and yet by faith I stand.I stand, and will not let Thee go,Till I Thy Name, Thy Nature know.Lame as I am, I take the prey;Hell, earth, and sin, with ease o'ercome;I leap for joy, pursue my way,And as a bounding hart fly home,Through all eternity to prove,Thy Nature and Thy Name is love.