Seek by prayer to move the Arm that moves the world.
- D. L. Moody
Wrestling With God
Modern life can be spiritually challenging. Overcoming prayer even more so. Particularly when the answers we need require moving men and/or circumstances, the Devil and/or even God.
Moved by love to prayers of anguish, prophetic Christians wrestle with our gracious Creator and Savior on behalf of lost family and friends, neighbors and even strangers. A concept that rightly makes many nervous. On the other hand, since every good and perfect gift comes from God, who better to appeal to when facing a crises.
While there are many ways to wrestle with God they all include prayer, of which there are at least seven methods with nearly an infinite number of variations. While the direct goal of kind of prayer may differ, a chief motivation is to move God. Unfortunately prayer is not an exact science. Even the concept of talking to God is difficult for some to grasp. Others, for a number of reasons, wonder if it's wise to engage God at all, much less about personal matters. What need has Omnity with us? How does one approach God? Am we worthy enough to have our prayers answered? Why tell Him what He must already know? Is there really any point when God so often seems silent and distant, particularly just when we need Him most?
Then there's the endless array of distractions for those of us blessed to live in the modern word that make seeking God less attractive than it once was. Even for church attending Christians, when it comes to serious study and service a lot more's said than done. As for the art of prayer there are even fewer takers. Some estimate the length of time dedicated to personal prayer by the average church attender to be as little as 3-5 minutes a day, the duration of a TV commercial break at the top of the hour. Clergy fare only slightly better, averaging 10-15 minutes or a coffee breaks worth. It's also been noted you can judge how popular a church is by the number attending Sunday services and how popular the pastor is by those attending mid week. If you want to see how popular God is count those attending a weekly prayer meeting. Today's average is 1% of the congregation if there is one at all.
Out of Bounds?
When it comes to seeking and serving God it's wise to let scripture be our guide. Thankfully both Old and New Testament's are full of examples if not mandates for wrestling with God. Prophets and psalmists seem at times to border on blasphemy as they candidly lament and cry out to God from the darkness to rend the heaven and come down. Christ repeatedly and strongly urges Christians to intercede for themselves and the world to the point of not take no for an answer. To keep asking, seeking and knocking even if it means taking the Kingdom of God by force and violence:
- "And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force." Matthew 11:12
- “Ask and keep on asking and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking and you will find; knock and keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who keeps on asking receives, and he who keeps on seeking finds, and to him who keeps on knocking, it will be opened." Matthew 7:7-8 AMP
- "Jesus told them a story showing that it was necessary for them to pray consistently and never quit. He said, "There was once a judge in some city who never gave God a thought and cared nothing for people. A widow in that city kept after him: 'My rights are being violated. Protect me!' "He never gave her the time of day. But after this went on and on he said to himself, 'I care nothing what God thinks, even less what people think. But because this widow won't quit badgering me, I'd better do something and see that she gets justice—otherwise I'm going to end up beaten black-and-blue by her pounding.'" Luke 18:1-5 MSG
Clearly the mega theme most emphasized in Scripture is the importance of seeking and serving God. With "Heaven to gain and Hell to loose" the rewards and punishments involved are off the charts. Yet even while the Bible emphatically states God's not willing that any should perish reality sadly paints a very different picture. More so than any previous time in history, modern Christians are falling from grace into temptation and sin. The salvation of as much as half the church stands in jeopardy, and while some teach eternal security unfortunately the Bible does not.
Preparation and Training
With so much at stake it's unwise to neglect any form of prayer, including wrestling with God. Scripture says, "physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come." Every athlete knows how important serious preparation and training are to the outcome of any match. It's the same when it comes to various modes of prayer. While there is room for some interplay, it's wise to take approaching God a step at a time. Here is a recommended order for exploring various methods of prayer:
1. The Prayer of Silence: Designed to clear the mind and acclimatize our souls to the importance and practice of serious prayer. Honoring God and giving our Creator and Savior a little equal time. Listening in hope of insight and understanding regarding such important topics as honesty and humility, genuine and living faith, salvation and discipleship, fellowship and worship. Click here to read article.
2. The Prayer of Repentance: Clearly brokenness and repentance are a key part of what God requires prior to approaching and worshiping Omnity acceptably. Particularly at a time when the quantity and quality of personal and corporate Me-ism and sin are at all time highs.
3. Conversational Prayer: The most common form of prayer taken to a whole new level.
4. Contemplative Thanksgiving: Taking the time to thoughtfully give thanks and count our blessings.
5. Prayer of Petition: How and why to recapture the lost art of personal and corporate intercession. Waiting on and wrestling with God, pressing through to realizing the power of answered prayer. The critical importance of developing a strategic and extensive daily prayer list.
6. Prayer of Complaint: Refusing to take no for an answer. Crying out to God in lament like Jeremiah or bewilderment like Habukkuk. Humbly yet boldly approaching God when life and/or prayer leave much to be desired. Like Mary’s perfect insistence and the persistent widow Jesus lauded, asking, seeking and knocking until the answer is given.
7. Prayer of Stillness: What to do when every mode has failed to bring the answers we desperately need. See Modern Psalm entitled Be Still.
Step into the Ring
Depending on how they're done some methods of prayer are more like wrestling than others. Even simple prayers of petition can have combative overtones when refusing to take no for an answer. One of the most confrontational of all is the prayer of complaint. Not for the novice, the style of prayer, has been used successfully for millennia. The Bible is full of examples, from the Book of Job and much of Psalms to Jeremiah's Lamentation and Habukkuk's complaint.
Beginning with the basics is a good way to build a prayer portfolio. The serious intercessor, one logging hundreds of hours a year and thousands during a lifetime should build on a firm foundation of thankful and repentive silence and supplication. From there it's natural to engage in casual and deep conversations with God. This will lead to making formal and persistent requests. Answers will spark thankfulness and praise. When we find our blessings in jeopardy, unanswered prayer should occasion seeking God's face through the study of Scripture, particularly on hindrances to prayer. The study of who can pray so God will hear may be exhaustive but it's well worth the effort.
Persevering in prayer without answers is frustrating to say the least. Serious disciples dig in, taking whatever steps necessary in pursuing God. During this period many question arise, such as how often should we pray? Where can we find good examples of personal prayer? How honest should we be with ourselves, God and others? What kind of quality and quantity might prevail? What does prevailing prayer even look like? Can we do so alone? If we pack all the passion we feel into prayer might there be consequences? Will God respond? We He demand equal time?
Other more subtle yet vital issues also need addressing. Given the dozens of major sects and denominations fracturing modern Christian, which best offers the genuine Christ and complete gospel? Are we on the right path to God? How will God respond to casual seekers? How radical a commitment does Christ require. Is our dismal record of prayers and worship, Bible study and meetings, spiritual insensitivity and worldliness more a reflection of faith or presumption? Has today’s ubiquitous levels of obvious and more subtle temptations and deceptions short circuited our access to God and vice versa?
Coach Holy Ghost
The Old Testament teaches that the "fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." The New Testament alone uses the word fear over a hundred times. Contrary to much teaching, most usages are directives to believers to be obedient or pay the price. All would be God wrestlers should acquaint themselves with scriptures teachings on the virtue of fear. Christ's teachings on fear are also a must read. We should always enter the ring through humility, or judging our situation accurately. As scripture warns, God is in heaven and we are on Earth so we should measure our words.
Some fear God too much for this kind of prayer. Thankfully the Bible encourages us to follow hard after God to the point of giving Him no rest:
- "One day Jesus told his disciples a story to show that they should always pray and never give up. “There was a judge in a certain city,” he said, “who neither feared God nor cared about people. A widow of that city came to him repeatedly, saying, ‘Give me justice in this dispute with my enemy.’ The judge ignored her for a while, but finally he said to himself, ‘I don’t fear God or care about people, but this woman is driving me crazy. I’m going to see that she gets justice, because she is wearing me out with her constant requests!’” Then the Lord said, “Learn a lesson from this unjust judge. Even he rendered a just decision in the end. So don’t you think God will surely give justice to his chosen people who cry out to him day and night? Will he keep putting them off? I tell you, he will grant justice to them quickly! But when the Son of Man returns, how many will he find on the earth who have faith?” Luke 18:1-8
- "So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children." Romans 8:15-16
- "So then, since we have a great High Priest who has entered heaven, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we believe. This High Priest of ours understands our weaknesses, for he faced all of the same testings we do, yet he did not sin. So let us come boldly to the throne of our gracious God. There we will receive his mercy, and we will find grace to help us when we need it most." Hebrews 4:14-16
Interestingly, those who wrestle with God in faith find the Holy Spirit ringside as their trainer and coach. Because God is more willing to give the Spirit and good gifts to us than we are to ask, He teaches us how to pray:
- "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children: how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" Luke 11:13
- "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" Matthew 7:11
- "Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans." Romans 8:26 MSG
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