If You're Fighting With God, Do This Now

Praying isn’t always pleasant. Sometimes it’s downright painful. When it is, persist and you’ll prevail. When you wrestle with God and leave limping, you’ll be better for the experience.

If you’re fighting with God in prayer, put the problem you’re fighting over on His plate. When we fight battles in our own power and provision instead of God’s pain will be the result.

v. 1-11. Jacob’s difficult life with Laban is finally in the past. But not all his past has been dealt with. A 20 yr. old problem of his own making must now be faced, his conscience assumes the worst.

When guilt from “yesterday’s” unfinished business catches up face it with God’s help. While He’s working on your beliefs, He’s also working on those stubborn behaviors to help you move forward.

v. 9-12. Problems help us pray! We often face challenges that don’t reconcile with our understanding of God or His will for us (Rom. 8:26-28). More prayer “reminding” God is a good starting place.

Prayer puts our problems where they belong - on God’s plate not our own. Prayer moves your problems into the realm of “possible with God” because of the power and promises of God:

v. 9 reminded God of His purposes: You told me to go home; 10 His providence: you enriched me for a reason; 11 His protection; 12 His promise: You said the land was mine and my seed...

v. 13-21. We can see God’s provision and protection - the host of angels - but still choose to trust our own plan. We can see but still wrestling to believe God is enough for this problem. So, we pray.

v. 22-32. Prevailing prayer bring us to an honest place - who am I really? It’s good, but not so easy for some, to get alone with the Lord and allow Him to confront you (Hos 12:2-6, Jer. 10:23-24).

When we wrestle with God in prevailing prayer, we leave the experience changed - and that’s the goal: We don’t seek to change God, we put ourselves in the place where God will change us.

It’s in those difficult seasons that while seeking to meet with God, He helps us meet ourselves. When we wrestle in prayer, we don’t just meet the Lord, we meet our limits.

We learn another valuable lesson in wrestling: We must lose the battle in our flesh to gain the victory in our spirit. Our example Jesus won when He said, not my will but thine be done.

The old stubborn self (our flesh) can fight a good long time against God. It’s very much alive until God touches it. Once surrendered, God breaks the man to make the man – with a new identity.

Broken, Jacob can no longer fight, he can only cling! It took over twenty years to get to the place where he was ready to deal with and allow God to deal with the real problem: himself.

The one who is broken by God becomes the one branded by God. They’ll never be the same and the family will be the first to notice. “What happened to you?” Last night I met God face to face!

When it’s painful to pray persist and you’ll prevail. When we wrestle with God, we might leave limping, but we’ll be better for the experience. What you “were” you’ll be no longer in Christ.

Let’s Take the Message Home:

1.What are those things in your past that God wants to deal with to help you move on. Let Him.
2.Look again at vss 9-12. What might you remind God about to put your problems on His plate?
3.As you wrestle with God about something, what change is He trying to make in you? Let Him.