Wrestling With God - Holy Persistence
Prayer is a big part of Lent! And sometimes when we pray, we need to wrestle a bit with God. Charles Wesley wrote a great hymn – his best, according to some – called Wrestling Jacob. Here’s how it begins:
"Come, O thou Traveller unknown,
Whom still I hold, but cannot see!
My company before is gone,
and I am left alone with Thee;
With Thee all night I mean to stay,
And wrestle till the break of day."
The Power of Holy Wrestling
Wesley's inspiration, clearly, was Genesis 32, the great story of Jacob wrestling with a man who turns out to be God. Jacob wrestles with him all night long, and eventually the man says "let me go!" but Jacob says "I will not let you go until you bless me!"
If I think about my own prayer life, there has perhaps been a lack of this kind of wrestling with God. Now, this was just one incident in Jacob's life. It's not as if every time we pray, we should be wrestling with God like this. But there are times when this sort of dogged persistence pays off. And during a season of fasting, like Lent, this can be particularly meaningful.
Maybe there is an issue in your life that needs some deeper, persistent prayer. Maybe there is a sin that is getting the better of you, an issue of the heart that you have never really released to God because you've never wrestled in prayer and actually given it up. Maybe a prayer session saying "I will not let You go until You cleanse me!" is needed.
Maybe there is a person in your life who desperately needs God, and you need to spend time wrestling on your knees and praying "I will not let You go until You do something in this person's life!"
Persistent Prayer for Breakthrough
Wesley said "with Thee all night I mean to stay, and wrestle til the break of day." How about a night of prayer? Praying with intensity, reading God's Word to guide your prayer, and persisting in a state of openness to God until something happens in your soul?
A little while back we did a half night of prayer at our church, which was attended by maybe 10-15 people. We started at 7, and we ended up heading home at about 9:15 or so. One of the men from our church spoke about his memories of full nights of prayer at this church, with people on their knees praying and singing and pleading with God all night long. As a young boy he would sleep in the pews, and wake up hours later and the people were still praying.
Maybe God is calling us to something like this, this Lent. Just one night, or one day, or some extended time where you turn off all your tech, and you just get on your knees with your Bible and pray for God's blessing.
I'm going to do it. How about you?
May it be that you give it a go, and that when you do, God does something wonderful as you take hold of Him in faith.
