We’ve looked at a couple of Bible characters who both wrestled and submitted to God in their own situations.
This time I would like us to look at some scriptures that can often be uncomfortable, challenging and at times, confusing. It is these scriptures that should make us wrestle, question and want to dig around a bit.
Here are a few…with a comment from me.
“The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them”. Psalm 34:7
If God encamps around His people (those who fear Him) why do bad things occur in their life? Why did our son encounter the most horrific accident. Was it because I wasn’t fearing the Lord enough? Just because God encamps around us, doesn’t necessarily mean we are free from the evils and freak happenings of life. Job feared the Lord and yet God allowed Satan to buffet him.
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even their own life—such a person cannot be my disciple”. Luke 14:26
There are other verses that command us to love, and even our enemies and yet we are told here that we should hate father and mother.
When digging a little deeper we find that the word ‘hate’ doesn’t carry the same meaning that many of us think it does. Hate in this context is ‘love less’. At first glance you can see why many would wrestle with such a saying from the lips of Jesus.
"He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life”. John 12:25
The last thing you want to read when suffering bitterly is to hate your own life. Those of us who suffer may already do that at times. The following scripture exhorts us to love our neighbour as we indeed love ourselves.
“The second most important commandment is this: 'Love your neighbor as you love yourself….” Mark 12:31
Again, context is everything. Eternal life is to be had when we fully have Jesus in our lives. There are so many things that can get in the way of that. Even my own suffering in this life can be an obstacle to knowing Jesus, both in this life, and the world to come. There are many things that we need to let go of, to love less those things that are an obstacle. We should never stop looking out for and caring for those around us.
“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them”. Romans 8:28
Everything is everything. Some versions say ‘all’. That must mean someone dying of terminal cancer. An encounter with a rapist. In our case, our son’s accident. What does ‘good’ look like? Our idea of good and God’s idea can be very different.
We are still yet to find what ‘good’ really looks like in the situation that we find ourselves in with our son.
“I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living!” Psalm 27:13
God’s goodness is a promise for every follower. We may not necessarily see that in all its fullness in this land. It may be the land that is yet to come, when we see Him face to face.
I hope you get a sense of what it means to struggle and wrestle with God and His Word. It really can be a two edged sword. It cuts both ways. It can be bitter and it can also be sweet. It is however His Word and it can bring comfort and it can also bring the opposite.
Wrestle we must and it is something I believe that the Lord desires of His people to help them draw near to Him, and grow in faith.
Prayer:
Help us be a people that really get grips with your Word. There are many things that don’t make sense and yet we are called to seek You in order to somehow understand what’s going on in our lives and the world around us. Help us to that end. Amen
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