Wrestling with God

Wrestling, reasoning, pleading my case with God.  Been there, done that.  Guess who won? Every. Time.

Jacob wrestled with God and came away with a limp the rest of his days.  Did he really think he could "beat" God, or get God to do what he wanted Him to do?  

Yet we "wrestle" against or with God all the time.  

"Lord, please, please take away this trial.  If You would just do this, I could be happy and not be so stressed all the time."

"Lord, why are you letting this disease go on and on?  Why won't You heal her/him/me?  Where are You?  Why don't You answer me?!"

"Lord, I give up.  I've done everything I could to follow and obey You.  Yet You keep allowing trials and tribulations in my life.  I can't take any more!"

"Lord, if you don't bless me with ________, I can't go on.  Why are you taking so long to bless me with _________?"

Do any of these ring true for you?  If you have a real relationship with the Lord, then certainly you've wrestled with Him in one of these ways, or some other way.

After all, it is a relationship.  And how many relationships are wrestle-free?  

But since God is perfect, if I perceive a problem with the my relationship with Him, guess who is to blame?

God isn't there to grant our every wish and in our timetable!  Does He provide healing and comfort?  Yes, indeed.  But sometimes, it takes longer than we'd like.

God is all wisdom and understanding.  His wisdom and understanding look nothing like ours!  Why?  Because He sees the beginning to the end.  He knows all the parameters of our lives.

How He chooses to bless us (or not) is always, without exception, for our best.  I don't know about you, but there are many times I find this hard to believe.

How can cancer be for my best?

How can a loved one's ongoing illness be for his/her or my best?

How does a broken dream spell God?

Let's review what God did promise us, so we can relinquish once and for all this "rose garden" mentality we may have of God.

As Christians, true followers of Christ, here is some of what Jesus promised, or prophesied, will happen to us.  Now I know there are plenty of positive, wonderful, and absolutely awesome promises of God.  But for now, I want to talk about some of His less popular promises.  

"In this world you will have tribulation."  John 16:33

"You will be hated by everyone because of Me." Matthew 10:22

"Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of of evil against you falsely on My account."  Matthew 5:11

"Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of Me." Matthew 24:9

No wonder these are not the more popular words of Jesus!  Ouch!

But every one of these was spoken by Jesus to the saints.  Can I get a loud "amen?"  I didn't think so.

So we wrestle with God because we either ignore these verses, or we don't think they're "for me."  We wrestle with Him because we only want the pleasant promises for our lives.  But that is not what the Christian life is about.  We've been sold a bill of goods if we've believed messages saying that all God wants to do it bless us with good things.  

Now don't turn that around and take it to mean that all He has for us is "bad" things.  Neither extreme is correct.

But this is more than just "taking the good with the bad."  This is about our acceptance of the fact that we simply cannot totally control our lives!  And when we wrestle with God, we prove that we are not pleased about this lack of control.

When we came to Christ, we unknowingly "signed up for" the trials and tribulations that belonging to Him brings.

So the "prosperity" gospel is quite popular these days because preaching trials and tribulations isn't quite as winsome!  But Jesus told us to "count the cost" when we say yes to Him, yes to following Him.  There is a cost.

But the "punchline" is this:  we will suffer in this life anyway, whether or not we are in relationship with Christ.  

There aren't enough drugs and booze in the world to balm the sorrows of life. 

So Jesus is both the initiator or "allower" of our trials, and the antidote, the balm, the answer, the cure.  Anyone who has read the book of Job understands this truth.

Does this mean we check our intellect at the door when we come to Christ; that we can never try to wrestle or reason with Him?  Try as we may, He will still prevail.  As He should.  This is the only relationship you will ever have where the other Person is always right.  But when God "wins," it is not like a hollow victory where He lords it over us (though He is the only One with the right to do so!).  He is not saying, "Ha ha!  I win!" unlike us when we win an argument.  

He is "winning" out of pure love for us.  He is saying, "You do not understand now, but you will some day.  In the meantime, trust Me!"

Because if life truly is "all about Him," and not about us, then we should be fine when things don't go our way.  There is no need for struggle or wrestling, because when we surrender to God, He fills us with Himself.  We admit that He is Lord and that He knows exactly what He is doing in and around our lives, no matter how difficult the circumstances may be.

What life will look like after this pandemic, God only knows.  But we can all agree that there will be an aftermath that will not be so pleasant.  Will we be ready?  I hope and pray that we can stop wrestling with God now so that we are out of that habit when things get even worse.

Lord Jesus, help us accept whatever You will for us, whether good, or seemingly "bad," and see it all as coming from Your loving Hand, for our best.  In Jesus' Name.  Amen.