Fifth day of Christmas

Rachel’s slave Bilhah conceived again and bore Jacob a second son.

Rachel said, “In my wrestlings with God, I have wrestled with my sister and won,” and she named him Naphtali. (Genesis 30:7-8)

The name Naphtali sounds like the Hebrew for, “my wrestlings.”

How often do we wrestle others for things that can never fill the hole in our hearts?

That’s what Rachel did in wrestling with Leah for the love of Jacob.

But the sad thing is, all our wrestling will leave us empty. Only God can fill that hole.

Let us seek the Giver over the gifts.

What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions that wage war within you?

You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war.

You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. (James 4:1-3)