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Part 1 : Why Should We Wrestle With God?
Genesis 32:24Then Jacob was left alone; and a Man wrestled with him
until the breaking of day.......... 28And He said, "Your name shall no longer be called Jacob, but Israel; for you have struggled
with God and with men, and have prevailed."
Jacob wrestled with God because God had promised Jacob that He would
allow Jacob to fill the earth with his descendants and now it appeared that Esau was coming to end that promise. Jacob now
had to struggle with his faith in God, faith that God would be true to His word and that God was in control, not men, therefore
He wrestled with his faith in God verses his faith put with men.
25Now when He saw that He did not prevail against
him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him. 26And He said,
"Let Me go, for the day breaks." But he said, "I will not let You go unless You bless me!"
When Jacob proclaimed
this (“I will not let You go), he was saying, “My faith is in God and His blessing and I will not let go of You,
even if You destroy my body.” Take my flesh (from the earth), but not my soul (that You created in Heaven).
Ephesians
6:10Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. 11Put on the whole armor of God, that you may
be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
13Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
14Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness
Jacob was
able to fight against the evil forces fighting within him, that were saying, “You are not worthy, so God will not protect
you, even though He promised that He would.” Jacob prevailed because he put his faith in God!
Genesis 18:22Then
the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the LORD. 23And Abraham came near and
said, "Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked?
Now we have Abraham wrestling with God.
25Far
be it from You to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be as the wicked;
far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" 26So the LORD said, "If I find in Sodom fifty righteous
within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes." 27Then Abraham answered and said, "Indeed now, I who am
but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord
Abraham knew that he was not worthy to stand
before the Lord (I who am but dust and ashes), but he wanted to know God better and this pleased God. By knowing God better,
Abraham’s faith and love for God could grow. Abraham had a relationship with God.
Jonah 1:7And they said to
one another, "Come, let us cast lots, that we may know for whose cause this trouble has come upon us." So they cast lots,
and the lot fell on Jonah. 8Then they said to him, "Please tell us! For whose cause is this trouble upon us? What is your
occupation? And where do you come from? What is your country? And of what people are you?" 9So he said to them, "I am a Hebrew;
and I fear the LORD, the God of heaven, who made the sea and the dry land."
We see here that Jonah feared the
power of God, but that he still was lacking faith in God. His faith in God and in God’s favor with him was not strong
enough for him to go to Nineveh and face the evil of men there. So Jonah needed to wrestle with God. He wasn’t going
to have faith unless he saw the miracles of God.
Let us now review our three points:
God will test you to see
if your faith lies with God or with men
God will show you that He wants a personal relationship with you
God
will give you miracles if that is what it takes for you to have faith in Him
In summary, God does want us to wrestle
with Him so that we can know and understand Him, so that our Love for Him and our Faith in Him is constantly growing stronger.
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