Needing to be. ( 1 John 4 v 7 - 8 )

Princess Diana  said ''the greatest disease in the world is the disease of being unloved'',multitudes of people are seeking for one thing love.Broken relationships abound in so many place,leaving multitudes feeling unloved. I am sure most of us would agree with that,most parents would say that they love their children yet they can treat them in a very unloving way,and that effects those children for the rest of their lives. I heard of a Christian girl whose married,says she does not want to have children, in case she treats her children like her father treated her, and her father was a minister. Some religious people can be very severe with their children,spare the rod and spoil the child is there motto.Of course children need discipline,but there is extreme discipline that can damage a child. Looking back I know I made many mistakes, I was far from being the perfect father,so I am speaking now from hind sight. Thankfully my children are all better fathers than I was,but here is the point I did love my children.The wonderful thing about being a Christian,we can learn from our mistakes,and by Gods grace we can become more loving,with our children,our spouses,our neighbours,with everyone,for they all need to be loved.

Wrestling ( Ephesians 6 v 10 )

One last thought on wrestling,and its not so much to do an individual, but  for every Christian,and we read about it in Ephesians 6 v 12,it is in the  AV,' 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'. Now without going into all the forces arrayed against us,  I would caution to not get  paranoid as regards what it said , the fact is we as Christians have a real struggle on our hands, there are forces arrayed against us. The hymn writer wrote,'I've wrestled on towards heaven,gainst storm, and wind and tide'.Let us first of all realise we are not going to reach our heavenly destination on flowery beds of ease.We are faced with a struggle,we have to use all the resources that God has provided for us, Ephesians 6 v 11, v 18 reminds us the importance of praying in the Spirit,who will surely grant all we need in our onward struggle.

Wrestling ( Luke 22 v 44 )

Consider the description of Epaphras praying ,it is likened unto one who wrestles ,the effort of Epaphras' prayers was like the intense effort of a Greek athlete contending for a prize....this intense effort was ceaseless,always wrestling (J. A. Beet )Now prayer takes many forms ,the hymn writer describes prayer as ,'the souls desire uttered or unexpressed,a sigh,a tear,the upward glancing of an eye, the simplest form of speech ( James Montgomery) Now all those things are legitimate ,if they are sincere and from the heart.they are acceptable to God. I remember many years ago my Pastor telling us about a well known evangelist,who was staying in a hotel,and when the person came to make the bed,the sheets were all ripped,that evangelist had been wrestling in prayer Consider our Saviour in the garden praying ,we read,'and being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground ( Luke 22 v 44 ) Now that's wrestling in prayer, may God grant unto us that our prayers may not just be words.

Wrestling ( Ephesians 6 v 18 )

We continue to look at Epaphras the servant of Christ who prayed for his fellow believers,yes he prayed,but consider how he prays,we read that he was always praying.I showed a person recently a plaque with these words on  it,'Prayer changes things'. I asked him if he believed this,his reply and further conversation,indicated that he may have prayed earlier in his life, but not now.Churches used to have prayer meetings, but not now. But Epaphras  was always praying, he had not given up,or given in,no he was always praying.The hymn writer  wrote,'We perish if we cease to pray,' are you perishing?Here is part of a prayer I read,'O God of the open ear,teach me to live by prayer',help me prize the privilege of prayer,that when I advance not in prayer,I backslide,may I be helped by your Spirit,to pray,to pray, to pray,in Jesus name . Amen.

Wrestling ( 1 Timothy 2 v 1 )

From Jacob to a man you may not have heard of,we read about him in Colossians 4 v 12 , his name was Epaphras ,Paul calls him a servant of Christ Jesus.We do not know  much about his service,other than  what  Paul writes, that he was always wrestling in prayer for the believers in the church at Colossae. Do we realise that prayer can be an important service, for your local church,when we talk about the church we are talking about the people,.Such a ministry is indispensable,and vitally important, our Pastors needs our prayers ,the sick need our prayers,the young people need our prayers,the sorrowing need our prayers.and so we could go on,let us pray for one another,let this be part of our service.

Wrestling ( Genesis 32 v 26 )

So there was Jacob wrestling with an angel and the angel requests of Jacob to let him go, but Jacob had other  ideas ,and this is what he replied,''I will not let you go unless you  bless me''.  ( Genesis 32 v 26)  Why did he request this?,here is an answer,  its found in ,Proverbs  10 v 22, 'The blessing of the Lord ,it maketh rich , and addeth  no sorrow with it. ''. My ,  no wonder he wanted to be blessed   ,consider the following,' I'll that He blesses  is our good and unblest good is ill, and all is right that seems most wrong if it be His sweet will'.Later on Jacob would experience heartache when Joseph his favourite son was perceived dead ,but this man had Gods blessing upon him, and it all worked out for good.                                                           

Wrestling ( Genesis 32 v 26 )

So here we continue to consider Jacob wrestling all night with the Angel of God,he has received a permanent limp,but he keeps on wrestling, even when he the angel requested him to let him go.His response to this request was this,''I will not let you go unless you bless me''.Jacob wanted something that was so important the blessing of God in his life. There are many who humanly speaking  have  everything,money,health,etc,all that counts for nothing if the blessing of  God is not upon their  lives. The first and most important blessing from God we all need is  the forgiveness of our sins,it cannot be bought , but we can miss it so easily. The result is truly awful ,the sin that is in our lives can continue to control us and destroy our lives,and most awful of all,take us to Hell,and shut us eternally out of Heaven. We receive the blessing of forgiveness through Christs death on the cross,but we must seek it whole heartily,as if are lives depended on it,which it does..Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered ( Psalm 32 v 1 )