Genesis: Wrestling with hard times

Jacob is an amazing person. He deceives his brother twice, his father once and tries to cut a deal with God after seeing a vision. I've always wondered how God felt when he promised to give Jacob thousands of descendants and all the land he could see only for Jacob to respond with "I'll give you 10% back." Seems a little anticlimactic to me; yet the Father didn't give up on him. Rather God led Jacob to Laban who conned the young con. Imagine working seven years for a bride only to have the dad switch daughters at the last minute. Is it any wonder that the relationship between Jacob and Laban was a little strained?

So when Laban caught up with the fleeing Jacob (Genesis 31), a rather interesting conversation followed. Jacob complained that he suffered heat by day, cold by night, worked 14 years for his wives, 6 for his flocks, had his wages changed 10 times and would have been poor if God had not intervened. Laban responded that all the wives, children and flocks were technically his anyway. The next chapter is the famous scene of Jacob wrestling all night with what turns out to be an angel - an angel powerful enough that he could have beaten Jacob at any moment. Jacob finally realized what  happened when he proclaimed, "I saw God face to face and yet my life was spared."

My question is whether these are indeed the same story? Not chronologically but metaphorically. What does it look like today when we wrestle God? Maybe it looks like frustrating life conditions, unfair treatment and the feeling that only by God's mercy are we not totally depraved. Maybe Jacob's life with Laban was really a prolonged wrestling match with God. Was God trying to teach Jacob something? Temper him? Grow him?

So what do my wrestling matches look like? Is frustration on my job or hard times in my family actually God at work, wrestling to get through my defenses and teach me something? Is unfair treatment his attempt to grow me? Is frustration for my benefit? And what will it take for me to realize this? To come to my senses and understand what the Father is doing to, in and for me?

Jacob limped away a new person from the wrestling match; he entered the fight as Jacob but left as Israel. Surely I will wrestle with God and/or life again, the question is will I leave as a new person or simply with a limp to add to my list of complaints?