Epaphras, who is one of you and a servant of Christ Jesus, sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you, that you may stand firm in all the will of God, mature and fully assured.” (Colossians 4:12)
What does it mean to wrestle in prayer? Who are you wrestling with? Is it God? Is God trying to keep from listening or answering your prayers? Well, it doesn’t clearly say, but my guess is, that it is with myself. Listen to James 4:1-3, “What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives…”
What does James tell us about praying and what we wrestle with? Our human desires…we just DO NOT ASK…we have wrong motives. Now there are enough things for anyone to wrestle with. Dawson Trotman said something like this. “I don’t think that the amount of time that we pray affects God, but I think that we need enough time to humble ourselves to God and be ready to really believe and trust Him.”
I don’t know how many Christians are tenacious in their faith or sacrificial in their praying, but I am sure that we will not see important spiritual breakthroughs without them. How about you? Are you willing to sacrifice the time away from “busy” this week to “wrestle” with yourself and sacrificially seek God in prayer and trust God to change your life and some in your church?
“Devote yourself to prayer, being watchful and thankful.” (Colossians 4:2)