35 Bible Verses about Striving With God

"All of us fell to the ground, and I heard a voice asking me in the Hebrew language, "Saul! Saul! Why are you persecuting me? It is hurting you to keep on kicking against the cattle prods.'

Now listen! God is with us to lead us, and his priests are about to sound their battle trumpets against you. Descendants of Israel, don't fight against the LORD God of your ancestors, because you won't succeed!"

No wisdom, insight, or counsel can prevail against the LORD.

Take counsel together, but it will all be for nothing; go ahead and talk, but it will all be for nothing, for God is with us."

Now if God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus, the Messiah, who was I to try to stop God?"

As the kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers conspire together against the LORD and his anointed one, they say, "Let us tear off their shackles from us, and cast off their chains." He who sits in the heavens laughs; the Lord scoffs at them.read more.
In his anger he rebukes them, and in his wrath he terrifies them:

"The wicked person writhes in pain throughout his life, a number of years has been reserved for the ruthless. Terrifying sounds ring in his ears; when times are prosperous, the Destroyer will attack him. He does not believe he will escape darkness; he is destined for the sword.read more.
He wanders around for food where is it? He knows that a time of darkness is near. Distress and pressure terrify him; they overwhelm him, like a king poised for attack. "For he has raised his fist against God, defying the Almighty. He defiantly ran against him carrying his thick, reinforced shield.

"You stubborn people with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are always opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do.

On the contrary, who are you mere man that you are to talk back to God? Can an object that was molded say to the one who molded it, "Why did you make me like this?"

"Should the one who is fighting the Almighty find fault with him? Let God's accuser answer."

"Woe to the one who quarrels with his makers, a mere potsherd with the potsherds of the earth! Woe to the one who says to the one forming him, "What are you making?' or "Your work has no human hands?'! Woe to the one who says to his father, "What are you begetting?' or to a woman, "To what are you giving birth?'!" This is what the Lord says, the Creator of the signs: "Question me about my children, or give me orders about the work of my hands.

At this, the entire assembly complained, started to shout, and cried through the rest of that night. All the Israelis complained against Moses and Aaron. Then the entire assembly responded, "We wish that we had died in Egypt or in this wilderness. What's the point in the LORD bringing us to this land? To die by the sword so our wives and children would become war victims? Wouldn't it be better for us to return to Egypt?"read more.
Then they told each other, "Let's assign a leader and go back to Egypt."

Because the Israelis argued with the LORD and he was set apart among them, this place was called the Meribah Springs.

do not be stubborn like your ancestors were at Meribah, as on that day at Massah, in the wilderness, where your ancestors tested me. They tested me, even though they had seen my awesome deeds.

However, if it's from God, you won't be able to stop them, and you may even discover that you are fighting against God!"

Then David told the Philistine, "You come at me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the LORD of the Heavenly Armies, the God of the armies of Israel whom you have defied.

This is the message that the LORD has spoken in opposition to him: ""The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises and mocks you; the Daughter of Jerusalem she tosses her head behind you as you flee. Whom have you insulted and reviled? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel! By your messengers you have insulted the LORD, and you have said, "With my many chariots I have climbed the heights of mountains, the utmost heights of Lebanon. I cut down its tallest cedars, the choicest of its pines; I reached its remotest heights, the most verdant of its forests.read more.
I myself dug wells and drank foreign waters; with the soles of my feet I dried up all the streams of Egypt."

He dropped to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul! Why are you persecuting me?" He asked, "Who are you, Lord?"

And so Jacob was left alone, and he struggled with a man until daybreak. When the man realized that he hadn't yet won the struggle, he injured the socket of Jacob's thigh, dislocating it as he wrestled with him, and said, "Let me go, because the dawn has come." "I won't let you go," Jacob replied, "unless you bless me."read more.
Then the man asked him, "What's your name?" "Jacob," he responded "Your name won't be Jacob anymore," the man replied, "but Israel, because you exerted yourself against both God and men, and you've emerged victorious."

The LORD accuses Judah, and will punish Jacob according to his ways; he will repay him for what he does. He circumvented his brother in the womb, and as an adult he fought with God. He even fought the angel and won; he cried and prayed to him. Then at Bethel he found him, and there he spoke with us read more.
the LORD God of the Heavenly Armies the LORD is his name.

Therefore, I always do my best to have a clear conscience before God and people.

He told them, "Keep on struggling to enter through the narrow door, because I tell you that many people will try to enter, but won't be able to do so.

For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am merely human, sold as a slave to sin. I don't understand what I am doing. For I don't practice what I want to do, but instead do what I hate. Now if I practice what I don't want to do, I am admitting that the Law is good. read more.
As it is, I am no longer the one who is doing it, but it is the sin that is living in me. For I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but I cannot carry it out. For I don't do the good I want to do, but instead do the evil that I don't want to do. But if I do what I don't want to do, I am no longer the one who is doing it, but it is the sin that is living in me. So I find this to be a principle: when I want to do what is good, evil is right there with me. For I delight in the Law of God in my inner being, but I see in my body a different principle waging war with the Law in my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin that exists in my body. What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is infected by death? Thank God through Jesus the Messiah, our Lord, because with my mind I myself can serve the Law of God, even while with my human nature I serve the law of sin.

Everyone who enters an athletic contest practices self-control in everything. They do it to win a wreath that withers away, but we run to win a prize that never fades. That is the way I run, with a clear goal in mind. That is the way I fight, not like someone shadow boxing. No, I keep on disciplining my body, making it serve me so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not somehow be disqualified.

I want to know the Messiah what his resurrection power is like and what it means to share in his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, though I hope to experience the resurrection from the dead. It's not that I have already reached this goal or have already become perfect. But I keep pursuing it, hoping somehow to embrace it just as I have been embraced by the Messiah Jesus. read more.
Brothers, I do not consider myself to have embraced it yet. But this one thing I do: Forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I keep pursuing the goal to win the prize of God's heavenly call in the Messiah Jesus.

To this end we work hard and struggle, because we have set our hope on the living God, who is the Savior of all people, that is, of those who believe.

In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.

Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of the Messiah Jesus, sends you his greetings. He is always wrestling in his prayers for you, so that you may stand mature, completely convinced of the entire will of God.

There is no one who calls on your name or rouses himself to take hold of you; for you have hidden your face from us, and have given us into the control of our iniquity.

In his anguish he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat became like large drops of blood falling on the ground.

So Moses returned to the LORD and asked him, "LORD, why have you caused trouble for this people? Why have you sent me here? Ever since I came to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has caused trouble for this people, and you have done nothing to deliver your people."

So why did you bring me out from the womb? I wish I had died, before anyone had seen me,

When I tried to understand this, it was too difficult for me

Why, LORD, have you rejected me? Why have you hidden your face from me? Since my youth I have been oppressed and in danger of death. I bear your dread and am overwhelmed. Your burning anger overwhelms me; your terrors destroy me.read more.
Like waters, they engulf me all day long; they surround me on all sides. You caused my friend and neighbor to shun me; and my acquaintances are confused. An instruction. By Ethan, the Ezrahite

"How long, LORD, must I cry out for help, but you won't listen? I'm crying out to you, "Violence!' but you aren't providing deliverance. Why are you forcing me to look at iniquity and to stare at wickedness? Social havoc and oppression are all around me; there are legal conflicts, and disputes abound. Therefore, the Law has become paralyzed, and justice never comes about. Because criminals outnumber the righteous, whenever judgments are issued, they come out crooked."