Since I started practicing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu six months ago, I’ve been thinking a lot about “wrestling” and how it’s principals can be applied to all aspects of life including spiritual life.
Wrestling appears twice in Scripture. It appears in Ephesians 6 when Paul writes about our wrestling “not with flesh and blood”; but against rulers, authorities, cosmic powers, and spiritual forces.
It’s interesting to me that Paul is clear – we do not fight against flesh and blood mankind, but unfortunately as Christians and as humans in general that is where we spend the most energy and focus – fighting other human beings on a personal level and on much grander scales. But there is a bigger, stronger enemy that the battle must be taken to. We must clothe ourselves in the armor that Paul describes (Ephesians 6:10-20) and take the battle into the “present darkness” on the Earth and the “heavenly places.”
This is not the only wrestling Scripture mentions. The other place it appears is in Genesis 32 where Jacob wrestles with God. He wrestles all night and into the next morning – and Jacob won’t let go until he gets a blessing. Something interesting happens – God – and many believe that this is a pre-incarnate Jesus that Jacob wrestles with (see Exodus 33:20; John 4:24; John 6:46). So Jesus touches Jacob’s hip and puts it out of joint causing Jacob to limp the rest of his life.
We like Jacob wrestle with God. Not in the physical sense the way Jacob did, but none the less it’s a struggle, a battle. The earmarks of this wrestling are strength, willpower, fortitude, and perseverance. It is those qualities that it takes to wrestle with God when we have questions only He can answer. I think God receives glory and honors us when we struggle with Him. I think too that He wounds us like He did Jacob – not in the sense of giving us a disease or causing us harm, but He graciously wounds us so that we can see Him, hear Him, and understand Him a little better.
In his match with God, Jacob receives the blessing he so badly longed for. I would like to think that we too receive what we are longing for when we wrestle with God.