Wrestling in Prayer

"Prayer is not overcoming God's reluctance, but laying hold of his willingness." - Martin Luther

 Wrestling in prayer… it is an unusual synonym. Often we think of prayer as more passive, a serene activity. Moreover, the Greek term used here is that of the struggle in battle. It is a fierce, strong, active term. It leads to the question, “With whom is he wrestling with?” His own flesh or will? But he is praying for others…. With Satan, in an idea reminiscent of Daniel 10 and the fight in the heavenlies? But, on the other hand, Daniel was unaware of the heavenly struggle…. It is certainly not a wrestling with God—as the Psalmists, the evangelists, and James point out, God is eager to answer prayer (James 1:5). Is he wrestling with his weakness of flesh, against apathy? Is the image of wrestling primarily to capture the force and effort he put into his prayers? This latter suggestion correlates with Paul’s instructions to the Colossians to be devoted to prayer and to remain watchful (Colossians 4:2). It is a prayer characterized by fervency, earnestness, and desperateness. Like Jacob wrestling with the angel in a desperate search for blessing, at the end of his rope, believing he was in danger of his very life (verse), Epaphras recognized there was no other alternative, that the stakes were high. God alone could supply the answer. God alone could intervene in this situation of eternity. Only God could make the Colossians stand firm, mature, and fully assured.

I am amazed at what prayer shows about our hearts:

• Do we understand the stakes? Do we live with eternity in view or focus on this world? 
• Do we recognize our dependence on God? Or do we try to do it on our own, and only run to him in prayer when we have failed? 
• Is he Lord, or do we just ask him to bless our plans? 
• What do we love? What we love, we pray about. What we don't care about, we don't pray about. How often do we pray for God's glory to be shone? For the salvation of our neighbors? 

I am struck again and again by Paul's humility. Here, too, once again I am struck by this tone. Paul uses the same words to describe Epaphras’ ministry as his own ministry. Both were struggling for the gospel, both were engaging fervently in intercessory prayer, and both were focusing on the full perfection and maturity of others. Neither of them were physically present with the Colossians at that time (Paul was in prison probably in Rome, Colossians 4:3, and Epaphras was with him, Colossians 4:12). Yet, both were fighting for the Colossians in prayer and ministering to them in that way, although from a distance. So, too, we can struggle in prayer and join in God’s work around the world. Our prayers have a long arm—they can touch dictator’s hearts, encourage persecuted Christians, open prison doors, set captives free, and bring others to Christ in nations all over the world, because it is God who works. Christ is King over all nations, who is omnipresent and omniscient. In his name, his character, his authority, we send forth our prayers and struggle on behalf of the persecuted, the beaten down, the enslaved. I cry out in frustration that I cannot do more, cannot do more for my friend whose feet are straying to traps, for the woman whose twenty-month old daughter is going deaf from effects of chemo from inoperable cancerous tumors behind her eyes, for a woman I know caught in domestic violence, for the hard heart of a bitter friend... I am burdened. I cry out that the Lord makes me an intercessor, a greater prayer wrestler. If we really believed in the power of God, the goodness of God, and that he responds to prayers, we will be passionate pray-ers, like Epaphras, wrestling in prayer. Not because we are great pray-ers. But because we have a great God. We are confident God responds because Christ is sufficient for our prayers!