Prayer – so many books, sermons, talks, and lessons have been published on this topic, that the amount of teaching is staggering. And then look at all of the teaching in Scripture; it can even become a tangled mesh in our minds at times. Like when Jesus says, “Ask what you will, in my name, and it shall be done unto you.” Is this really true? Haven’t we ask God for things before, closed our prayers in the habitual “in Jesus name I pray, AMEN.” only to find no clear answer, and definitely not receive the one we prayed for. This makes me scratch my head at times, But as they say in teaching, an illustration (picture) is worth a thousand words, so let me give you a short “1,000 word” blog.
Abraham, in Genesis 18, is talking to the Lord about the future fate of Sodom. The conversation really turns into a bargaining match, or what I think of as a wrestling match between Abraham and the Lord. Abraham wrestles with the Lord for his own interest in Sodom, mainly his nephew Lot, but he also wrestles for the glory of God (“will you slay the righteous with the wicked? far be it from You!”). This is a perfect mixture of the Compound of Christian prayer – “ask what you will, but ask it for God’s glory.”"Delight thyself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart (Ps.37:4).”
Abraham’s attitude in prayer shines in 18:27,
“Indeed now, I, who am but dust and ashes, have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord.”
Abraham does not wrestle with God in the WWF style of the modern charismatic movement. His wrestlings do not bind God, bind Satan, bind wickedness, bind fire from heaven, nor in essence bind his prayers. He remembers that he is but dust, but he also remembers the grace of God that he might approach God. We may have this same confidence and boldness, the writer of Hebrews 4:16 tells us, since God’s grace is to us, as well, today. But mark this, that we must come before God humbly, not viciously arrogant.
And lastly in this wrestling lesson, Abraham lost. He was wrestling for the salvation of Sodom, and he lost! Imagine what went through his mind when he walked out that fateful morning of judgment and saw the smoke rising from the Jordan valley. Was all of that talk in vain? In reality, Abraham didn’t lose, because God gave him the desires of his heart, only in a different way than he prayed. God did manifest His own glory and righteousness in the judgment of Sodom, but He also graciously spared Lot for Abraham’s sake. Remember that many times, when you wrestle with God, it will seem like you have lost, but God always answers in ways that are best for His glory and our good. He knows our hearts and he tells us to pray without ceasing (wrestle). We cannot simply disregard our own interests (our Lot’s), but we ought to wrestle for our interests, for God’s glory, in humility, realizing in the end that God’s ways are always best.
