Wrestling With God When He’s Trying to Move You

When God has made big moves in my life, I am usually resisting Him. I like to keep things as is. I like predictability. I like to stay put. I don’t like the unknown. Do you?

But just because we are wrestling with God does that mean we aren’t trusting Him?

I think it can, but maybe not…

We recently moved from Southern California to Peoria, Arizona. I didn’t want to go. Not at all. When God started whispering to my husband that a ministry move may be in order, I was hugely against it. We had been at our church for over sixteen years, and I loved it. I loved serving at our church. I loved the people at our church. I loved the outreach at our church. Then, when it looked like God was shifting us to another state, I was even more resistant. I loved where we lived. I loved our house. I loved living in California.

I mourned the idea of moving away.

The day my husband let me know he felt God was moving him my whole body went into a panic. I could feel it from the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. It was a whole-body panic.

It took me back to when God was calling my husband into vocational ministry. A whole-body panic went underway. I couldn’t sleep at night. I’d tell God He could call Mike, he’d be great, but me? I couldn’t be a pastor’s wife. No, not me. Not ever. I’d be a terrible pastor’s wife. I say the wrong things. I say the wrong things…at the wrong times. I’m way too messy. And I wrestle with God over way too many things.

Then, one sleepless night as I read my Bible in my living room—as I had been doing for about two weeks—routinely telling God I couldn’t be married to a pastor, God whispered. He led me to a verse. Matthew 10:39—“The one who has found his life will lose it, and the one who has lost his life on My account will find it.” That was it, I stopped wrestling and said OKAY to God. I had to give up my plans for His.

As I had the same wrestle with a possible move, I had to relinquish my plans for God’s plans. I had to allow God to do what God does. I had to sit in the anguish of uncomfortableness. I had to accept the changes I didn’t like. I had to move forward and trust. In her book A Path Through Suffering, Elisabeth Elliot says, “God’s ultimate purpose in all suffering is joy.” 

Joy. God wants us to be joyful. God wants us to have peace. God wants what’s best for us.

And I had to move forward and welcome God’s next step for us.

God moved us. After all the wrestling I know God moved us to serve. God moved us to give us joy. God moved us to give us peace.

Back to wrestling…

If we are wrestling does that mean we aren’t trusting?

I don’t think so.

We find peace in the wrestle. We find peace in the pain. We find peace in the willingness to move forward even in the wrestle and the pain and the anguish. And that’s what I did, I moved forward and walked through the uncomfortable and the broken heart and the struggle.

At the other end was joy and peace and God’s best.

I don’t know what you are wrestling with today but I do know God is with you in your wrestle. And I do know you can trust God through the waves and the doubts and the storm.

Don’t let anyone tell you that because you’re wrestling, you’re not trusting. We can trust and wrestle at the same time. God can handle our wrestling as we lay all of our hurt and distress at His feet, and He will guide us through to joy.

Thanks for visiting LuSays. For books from Lucille Williams check out From Me to We and The Intimacy You Crave helping relationships thrive.