Hold On Tight, Until…

Prayer as striving and wrestling.

I’ve been studying Romans 15:14-33 this week in preparation to preach it to my beloved church family at Grace Church tomorrow morning (which explains a few of my posts this past week).

As so often happens, my personal Bible reading (currently Genesis) often connects to my sermon Scripture text study. This is unsurprising, as the Bible is one unified and connected story that leads us directly to Jesus.

The connection this morning was centered on prayer.

First, let’s look at what I saw in Romans 15 —

30 Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, through our Lord Jesus Christ and through the love of the Spirit, to strive together with me in prayers to God on my behalf. 31 Pray that I may be rescued from the unbelievers in Judea, that my ministry to Jerusalem may be acceptable to the saints, 32 and that, by God’s will, I may come to you with joy and be refreshed together with you.

33 May the God of peace be with all of you. Amen.

(Romans 14:30-33, Christian Standard Bible)

Look at that bolded section above — “to strive…in prayers to God.” What does that word mean, to “strive”?

It’s the only time in the New Testament that it’s used. It means to join with someone in a common fight, to get shoulder to shoulder with them and struggle, and strain, and give it absolutely everything you have….together. Paul is saying that’s the kind of praying he wants the Romans to do for him, to God.

OK. So that was in the back of my mind from the sermon Scripture text study this week. And then I find myself in Genesis this morning, reading along, and I hit the end of chapter 32. And what I find there is a helpful picture of what Paul is actually on about on Romans 15.

Look with me —

24 Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak. 25 When the man saw that he could not defeat him, he struck Jacob’s hip socket as they wrestled and dislocated his hip. 26 Then he said to Jacob, “Let me go, for it is daybreak.”

But Jacob said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.”

27 “What is your name?” the man asked.

“Jacob,” he replied.

28 “Your name will no longer be Jacob,” he said. “It will be Israel because you have struggled with God and with men and have prevailed.”

(Genesis 32:24-28, Christian Standard Bible)

Whoa.

Do you see it?

“…you have struggled with God…”

Do you know what that bolded word means? You guessed it — to strive or contend in a fight, to exert oneself, to persist, and to persevere, until your objective is achieved, and you’ve beaten your opponent.

Huh. Your opponent.

Well, that’s a bit troubling, given the players involved here in Genesis 32, for Jacob’s opponent is God. Jacob had struggled all his life to prevail, first with his brother Esau, even in the womb, and then with Laban. Now with God. He deeply desired and was wrestling for blessing. And here we see that it would be no human whom he would wrestle, because no human could ultimately provide what Jacob — or any of us — needs.

Jacob wrestled with God.
Jacob would not let God go until he blessed him.
Which God did.
Jacob prevailed.
As a result of the wrestling, and struggling, and persisting.

Which is exactly what Paul was asking the Romans to do for him — “Don’t let God go until he blesses me. Strive, strain, give it absolutely everything you have, exert yourself fully, persist and persevere.”

Friends — Does this describe our praying?

Let us not be afraid to wrestle with God.
Let us not hesitate — together, with each other — to hold on tight to God.

Until he blesses us.