9. “Don’t Wrestle in Prayer—Just Believe”
9
“Don’t Wrestle in Prayer—Just Believe”
My dear friend Dr. Howard Sugden and I were two of the three speakers at a summer Bible conference at which the third speaker was rather unhappy with us. Perhaps he felt threatened by Dr. Sugden’s stature and popularity as a preacher, or maybe he was just having a bad week. We all have them. At any rate, he decided one day to challenge a statement one of us had made in a message about “wresthng in prayer.”
“Prayer isn’t a wresthng match with God,” he said with great intensity. “Prayer is a beautiful conversation with God. We believe, we ask, and He gives.”
Dr. Sugden and I said nothing, but I’m sure he was recalling Colossians 4:12 just as I was.
Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wresthng in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.
The Greek word translated “wresthng” is agonizomai and gives us the English word agonize. Instead of having a quiet and beautiful conversation with God, Epaphras was praying like a wrestler or a runner in the Olympic games, striving to win a gold medal. Paul also prayed this way. He asked his friends in Rome to join him in his “struggle [sunagonizomai] by praying to God” for him (Rom. 15:30). There are times when we need the endurance and determination of an athlete if our praying is going to accomplish the will of God.
This isn’t to say that our personal pains and exertions will bend God’s will, but neither does it suggest that it’s a mark of deep spirituality to be cold and passive as we intercede for others. Jonathan Edwards wrote of David Brainerd:
His history shows us the right way to success in the work of the ministry. He sought it, as a resolute soldier seeks victory, in a siege or battle; or as a man that runs a race, for a great prize. Animated with love to Christ and souls, how did he “labor always fervently,” not only in word and doctrine, in public and private, but in prayers day and night, “wresthng with God” in secret, and “travailing in birth,” with unutterable groans and agonies.… Like a true son of Jacob, he persevered in wresthng, through all the darkness of the night, until the breaking of the day. 1
Charles Spurgeon quoted these words to his students in his lecture “The Preacher’s Private Prayer,” which was given at his pastors’ college, but the quotation applies to every Christian and not to ministers only. (I recommend the lecture to all believers.) Although careful exegetes correctly point out that Jacob’s wresthng with the Lord recorded in Genesis 32:22–31 was not a prayer meeting as such but a battle of wills, it would be wonderful if in our own praying we imitated Jacob’s determination and said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me” (Gen. 32:26).
If you need more evidence that prayer can involve wresthng, I put before you the example of our Lord Jesus Christ: “During the days of Jesus’ life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with fervent cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission” (Heb. 5:7).
Like any metaphor, the phrase “wresthng with God” must be seen with the eyes of the heart. That blessed proponent of prayer E. M. Bounds put it this way:
Prayer in its highest and most availing form is accomplished with the attitude of wresthng with God. It is the contest and victory of faith, a victory not secured from an enemy but from one who tries our faith that he may enlarge and increase its desires.… The Bible is inexhaustible in its illustrations of the fact that the highest spiritual good is secured from the highest form of spiritual effort. Grace it is, but grace in its rewarding, compensating form. There is no room in the plans of grace for feeble desires, listless efforts, lazy attitudes. All must be ardent, vigorous, vigilant. 2
Of course, the energy for “wresthng in prayer” must come from the Holy Spirit. “If the prayer originates with the Holy Spirit, then the wresthng can be beautiful and wonderful,” wrote A. W. Tozer, “but if we are the victims of our own overheated desires, our praying can be as carnal as any other act.” 3 It’s dangerous to bring false fire to the altar of the Lord. That’s what killed Nadab and Abihu (Lev. 10).
The tenth stanza of Charles Wesley’s poem “Wresthng Jacob” says it well:
My prayer hath power with God; the grace
Unspeakable I now receive,
Through faith I see thee face to face,
I see thee face to face, and live;
In vain I have not wept, and strove,
Thy nature and thy name is Love.
The many images of prayer in Scripture remind us that our experiences at the throne of grace will vary from time to time, and this is a good thing. In the Jewish sanctuary, prayer was symbolized by the burning of incense on the golden altar before the veil (Luke 1:8–9; Rev. 5:8). David in the wilderness couldn’t visit the sanctuary, so he asked God to accept the lifting up of his hands to heaven as the equivalent of the burning incense (Ps. 141:1–2; 1 Tim. 2:8). Daniel opened his windows toward Jerusalem when he prayed (Dan. 6:10; 1 Kings 8:46–51), and Jesus instructed His disciples to close the door when they prayed (Matt. 6:5–6). Abraham conversed with the Lord as he shared his burden (Gen. 18:16–33), but King Hezekiah turned his face to the wall and fervently asked God to let him live (Isa. 38:1–3). An angel had to strengthen Jesus in the garden, for He was in anguish, and “his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground” (Luke 22:44).
Whatever our posture or practices in prayer, so long as they aren’t unbiblical, let’s be sure we have passion in our prayers. “The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results” (James 5:16 NLT). Quoting E. M. Bounds again, “Prayer, to be efficient, must have life. It must be living. It must be energized by all the forces that can be kindled in the soul by a great faith, a great need, and a great desire.” 4
If the Holy Spirit is assisting us in our praying “through wordless groans” (Rom. 8:26), then how can we not occasionally utter a few groans ourselves?