Wrestle while Remaining

“My God, my God, why have You forsaken me? Why are You so far from helping me, and from the words of my groaning? [Matt 27:46]” Psalms 22:1

The term “wrestling with God” has been on my heart to write on for awhile. Too many times I would wrestle with God and wind up feeling guilty. I had to learn that nearly anyone who has walked with God has wrestled with Him, not because He was quarrelsome, but because as humans we cannot figure out God’s great plan. As a result of the uncertainty and confusion, it can feel as if God is no longer with us. I remember one time I wrestled with God in particular, my family was going through a hard, trying time and I couldn’t see how God was gonna use it for His good. I couldn’t help but cry out to God, begging for any clarity at all. Psalms 22 is a very similar prayer to that. Asaph, although he asks if God had forsaken him, still said “My God”. While we are in wrestling matches with God it is imperative that we do not remove God from His throne in our lives. So when life is hitting you where it hurts and you lose sight of what God is doing it is alright to wrestle with God through it, but be sure you remember that God is perfectly loving, perfectly just, and is working all things for good. Often times God does His work in and through the unknown. 

Walk with a Limp

“But as for me, my feet came close to stumbling, My steps had almost slipped. For I was envious of the arrogant as I saw the prosperity of the wicked.” Psalms 73:2-3

This is another psalm of Asaph where he shows his wrestling with God. In which, he is being extremely vulnerable in saying that his doubts almost won. I think it is very telling that when faced with his doubts, he goes to God. Often times, when there is a rift in a friendship, the tendency is to let it be a slow burn and drift away, that can not be the tendency with God. I have heard it said that it is better to walk with a limp than to run from God. It is better to go to God and wrestle than to slowly fall away from Him. It is the hard conversations that form a true bond and it is the same with God. I believe God allows trials in our lives so that through the wrestling, we may be made more like Him. Like gold in a fire or an athlete going through intense trading, it is that we may be made pure and run the race set before us.

Wrestling with Purpose

“For the time being no discipline brings joy, but seems sad and painful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness [right standing with God and a lifestyle and attitude that seeks conformity to God’s will and purpose].” Hebrews 12:11

“And being in agony [deeply distressed and anguished; almost to the point of death], He prayed more intently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down on the ground. [Heb 5:7]” Luke 22:44

Something that can make wrestle with God easier to endure is knowing that He is growing you in every moment. As someone who was tired of hearing that when I was in that season, I know that it can lose it’s helpfulness, but it never loses it’s truth. One of my wrestling matches with God, I was holding on to a gateway to temptation, but through crying out and wrestling, God was gracious to show me that what I was wrestling for what was wrong. In the moment I felt God was cruel, but looking back I wish I would have listened much sooner. I bring that example up to show that when wrestling with God, we must be sure what we are wrestling for. Is it for personal comfort or false peace, or is it for the glory of God and furthering of His kingdom? In wrestling for the ultimate purpose of God and His kingdom, you will find His true comfort and peace.