You see, grappling with God is saying, “I am not going to let go until I receive the answer I need or that I am looking for from God.” Did you know Jesus, God’s one and only Son, grappled with God?
The Bible tells us about it in Luke 22:41 when Jesus was in Gethsemane. It says, “And he was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw away, and he knelt down and prayed, saying, ‘Father, if it is your will, take this cup from me; nevertheless not my will, but yours, be done.’ Then an angel appeared to him from heaven strengthening him. And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly. Then his sweat became like great drops of blood falling to the ground.”
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You see Jesus needed to grapple with God over going to the cross. He needed comfort for what was about to transpire. Jesus knew that when He was on the Cross, He who knew no sin was about to become sin. He knew for the very first time in His earthly life that His Father was going to turn His back on Him. He knew God was going to forsake Him on the Cross, and He needed the comfort that only could come from God, so He wrestled with Him. He grappled with Him.
Luke tells us that in these moments, the sweat poured out of His body in the form of blood. Doctors tell us that when someone is under great stress, sweating blood happens, and that was what was happening to Jesus. What did God do because Jesus grappled with Him? He sent an angel to minister to Him.
Jesus wrestled. Jesus grappled with God and got what He needed. Have you grappled with God? Have you gotten what you need?
A friend of mine, Pastor Owen Carr, tells a story about his first youth pastor at the Stone Church, a guy named Phil Wiesenan. When Phil first came to the Stone Church he was already a successful youth pastor, so when he went there, he told Pastor Carr what he was going to do because it worked at his last church.
Pastor Carr told Phil that instead of doing what he did at his last church, what Pastor Carr wanted Phil to do was go into the sanctuary and spend time praying there until he felt like he had heard from the Lord. At the time, the church had a youth group of maybe 30 kids who were “troublemakers,” so to speak. Once during a youth convention, the whole youth group was sent home because they destroyed a hotel room by melting cheese on light bulbs, and throwing hotel furniture out of the windows.
Reluctantly, Phil went into the church sanctuary and started to pray. Why did he need to pray if he already knew what to do? He spent a week in the sanctuary. He spent two weeks in the sanctuary. By the third week, he was completely frustrated. Then something happened.
One day as Pastor Carr was going to the sanctuary, he heard someone weeping before the Lord; it was Phil. Phil spent hours weeping before the Lord. He heard from the Lord, he had grappled with God.