The truths that I know best I have learned on my knees. I never know a thing well, till it is burned into my heart by prayer. {john bunyan}
The words most often used to describe urgent, prayerful labor are wrestle, plead, cry, and hunger. In some sense, prayer may be the hardest work we ever will engage in, and perhaps it should be. {patricia holland}
i love the hebrew meaning of the word "wrestle". it means to hold fast in an embrace and to get dusty. there is nowhere closer to the breath of God than when we wrestle with Him in prayer. we get the dust of our humanity all over us. and at the same time God takes on that filth and dust upon Himself. once again. because He loves a wrestler. He blesses wrestlers who do not let go until they are blessed. and dusty.
may i be one who wasn't afraid to wrestle well. dirt and skinned knees. they are always worth the breath of God so close to my embrace. wrestling means that i am hanging on to the only hope that we have this side of Heaven. a God who isn't afraid to take on the dust of humanity. because He knows that dust so well...
psalm 103:13-17 As a father has compassion on his children,
so the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him;
for He knows how we are formed,
He remembers that we are dust...
But from everlasting to everlasting
the Lord’s love is with those who fear Him,
and His righteousness with their children’s children...