Followers of Jehovah are always wrestling. In Genesis 32:22-23 Jacob, after having endured a trial with his deceitful uncle Laban, fled his house with his family. He attempted a peace treaty and reconciliation with both his uncle and his estranged brother Esau, whom he had tricked into selling his birthright to him. Dealing with the pain of all that his life had become and desiring to wrest a new future, Jacob wrestled with an angel of the Lord throughout the night until the break of day, stating, “I will not go except you bless me.” In this wrestling the Lord did not just give him the blessing, but a new name. Instead of Jacob which means usurper, his name would be Israel, or God strives, “because you have fought with God and with men and have won.”
In Ephesians 6, Paul admonishes us to be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. To put on the whole armor of God to be able to stand against the devil’s schemes in the evil day. He explains that we are used to waging war against other humans with fleshly weapons like angry arguments, and the striking of fists. He reveals that these attempts to wage a spiritual war in a carnal way will be fruitless, like beating the air. It is not people and what they do or do not do that we are fighting. There is a higher, unseen realm of warfare that we must engage. “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” Ephesians 6:12 Today as you engage difficult problems, know there is a bigger fight and get to wrestling in the Spirit!
