My pastor started a series on the writings of Paul. Beginning with Romans 1, he pointed out that it was vs 17 that Martin Luther ‘wrestled out’ in the 1500’s. Because of that wrestling, we have the Protestant faith’s.
Before his wrestling, there was pressure to be ‘righteous’ – pressure to eliminate enough bad and add enough good to be ‘righteous’ like God. That’s a lot of pressure. For weeks he wrestled . . . and finally the breakthrough that changed his life and ours.
The point of this is not to remind of what the breakthrough was, but to mention the thought I had when I thought about it being a result of his wrestling.
What is that by wrestling out with the same energy, might we give birth to or otherwise discover or see take place? Does His kingdom suffer because so few of wrestle? What are we missing because we do not wrestle a thing through?
Hunger and Thirst 
Whatever teachings I write come from my wrestling with the Lord in prayer and waiting on Him. You’d think I’d be used to it by now, but I struggle through every one and wonder if I will ever reach a conclusion.
You have me thinking with you about this. How often have I just prayed for His will to be done, thinking that I don’t want to mess with that. But what if it is His will that I wrestle somethings out before Him? What if He is just waiting for me to?
Thanks Mike! God bless you!
“I struggle through every one and wonder if I will ever reach a conclusion”
That puts it perfectly. It is like there is an issue to settle and that once settled, all other stuff will fall into place. I have little settlings, but they have a way of fading. So there is the constant need of hearing from Him. We truly are the sheep of His pasture. We are dumb and totally dependant on Him . . . well I know I am at least.
And as far as just praying for His will to be done . . . I think that is what I have done for years. I think it is what the church does, and I think that is why we see so little evidence of God sized things done.
And so I am wrestling through this issue. I feel I am on the right track.
Concerning this, a while back I wrote this:
Because my heart
Has thus agreed
My mind believes
It has obeyed
For me it summarized the tendency to think that we’ve “got” something just because we have acquired the knowledge or because our heart has been warmed by it. But you are right in that we only really get it in the wrestling through. And I have become more and more convinced that it isn’t me that wrestles with truth, but truth that wrestles with me. Our instant society has forgotten how to tarry before the Lord and we have thereby lost more that we could ever imagine.
Blessings to you Mike.
“it isn’t me that wrestles with truth, but truth that wrestles with me”
That is a good way to look at it. It really is like truth is compelling me to press – like it knows there is something there I need to know – something that will be helpful to me and others if I see it.
My wife and I watched the last half of ‘The Great Debaters’ a few nights ago (I think that was the name of it). I was both impressed and challenged by the amount of research – the hours spent ‘wrestling’ to discover truth.
I can’t quit thinking about these different comments and how they all relate.
What started it all was the point of the poem; do we just come part way which is far enough for us to think, at least for a while, that we are there? Do we never ‘reach a conclusion’ because we stop at this midway point? Is He really ‘just waiting on us’ to wrestle the thing on out/through with enough energy to give birth to something – to not quit until we see evidence of the thing our mind believes?
It might be for me that in the past 7 years I have wrestled my way to this mid way point of settling what I believe. Now there seems to be a stirring to test the truth of it, or maybe a better way to put it would be to ‘assert’ the truth of it.
Very good point and piece. Without wrestling,we have no peace. Like the saying,’Sometimes you must go to war, in order to gain [ and remain in ] peace’. I need to remember that. You know we are in a battle, if we are engaged or not,is a different story. I have heard people say,’I am having so much warfare’. While in truth they are not engaged, they are enduring assault. I know from my own experiances,of laying on the mat,rather than wrestling.
It reminds me of when Jacob wrestled with God and afterward God named him Israel. The digging in .. seeking letting truth penetrate our minds, souls and lives – I think that process makes it our truth.
Rachel
Speaking of which, I think that is what you’ve done on the church issue. I read your response and could tell you had a lot to back up your position. I’ll have to yield to your expertise there. I guess we all have things we are wrestling out. I think that is part of the variety that is in so much we see in relation to God. To think that just because ‘we’ are wrestling through something means that everyone else should be wrestling through the same, puts God in a pretty small box. I think He enjoys the variety . . . His nature is all about variety. I keep thinking, if He is leading, there must be a reason. So as He leads, we’ll each/all hopefully wrestle out to the end.
Sorry to not get back to you sooner. Taking this oppertunity to kill two birds with one stone.