35 Bible Verses about Striving With God
Most Relevant Verses
We all fell to the ground. I heard a voice speaking to me. It said in the Hebrew tongue: 'Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.' (You only hurt yourself.)
God is with us as our leader. His priests will sound their trumpets to call the army to fight you. Men of Israel do not wage war against Jehovah the God of your ancestors. You will not succeed.
Make plans for battle, but they will never succeed. Give orders, but they will not be carried out, because God is with us!
Since God gave them the same gift as he gave to us who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could oppose God?
The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against Jehovah and against his Anointed One. They say: Let us break their chains of control and throw off their oppressive rule. The One who dwells in heaven laughs. Jehovah scoffs at them.read more.
Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his rage (fury). He says:
All his days the wicked man suffers torment and the ruthless through all the years stored up for him. Terrifying sounds fill his ears. When all seems well, marauders attack him. He despairs of escaping the darkness; he is marked for the sword.read more.
He wanders about as food for vultures and he knows the day of darkness is at hand. Distress and anguish fill him with terror. They overwhelm him, like a king poised to attack. He shakes his fist at God and vaunts (brags) (shows off) himself against the Almighty, He defiantly charges against him with a thick, strong shield.
You obstinate men who are uncircumcised in heart and ears. You always resist the Holy Spirit as your fathers did.
Yes, but you, O man, who are you to answer back to God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it: Why have you made me this way? (Isaiah 45:9)
Will the person who finds fault with the Almighty correct him? Will the person who argues with God answer him?
Does a clay pot dare argue with its maker, a pot that is like all the others? Does the clay ask the potter what he is doing? Does the pot complain that its maker has no skill? Do we dare say to our parents: 'Why did you make me like this?' Jehovah, the Holy God of Israel, the one who shapes the future says: You have no right to question me about my children or to tell me what I ought to do!
All the Israelite congregation raised their voices and cried out loud all that night. They complained to Moses and Aaron: If only we had died in Egypt or in this desert! Why is Jehovah bringing us to this land? Is it just to have us die in battle? Our wives and children will be taken as prisoners of war! Would it not be better for us to go back to Egypt?read more.
They said to each other: Let us choose a leader and go back to Egypt.
This was the oasis of Meribah (Complaining), where the Israelites complained about Jehovah and where he showed them he was holy.
Do not harden your hearts, as in the day of strife, as in the day of testing in the wilderness. Your fathers tempted me, tested me, and saw my work.
But if it is from God, you cannot overthrow it; otherwise you may find yourselves fighting against God.
David answered: You come out to fight me with a sword and a spear and a dagger. But I come out to fight you in the name of Jehovah of Hosts. He is the Almighty God of Israel's army. You have insulted him!
this is the word Jehovah spoke against him: The Virgin Daughter of Zion despises and mocks you. The Daughter of Jerusalem tosses her head as you flee. Who is it you have insulted and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? It is against the Holy One of Israel! By your messengers you have heaped insults on Jehovah. You said: With my many chariots I have ascended the heights of the mountains, the utmost heights of Lebanon. I cut down its tallest cedars, the choicest of its pines. I reach its remotest heights, the finest of its forests.read more.
I dug wells and drank the water there. With the bottom of my feet I dried up all the streams of Egypt.
He fell to the earth and heard a voice saying: Saul, Saul! Why do you persecute me? Who are you Lord? He asked. The Lord said: I am Jesus whom you persecute.
Then Jacob was by himself. A man was fighting with him till dawn. The man saw that he was not able to overcome Jacob. He gave him a blow in the hollow part of his thigh, so that his leg was damaged. He said to him: Let me go now, for the dawn is near. But Jacob said: I will not let you go till you have given me your blessing.read more.
Then he asked: What is your name? And he said, Jacob. The man said: Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel (He Struggles With God), because you have struggled with God and with men and you have won.
Jehovah brings legal charges against Judah and punishes Jacob because of the way their people act. He will pay them back for what they have done. Their ancestor Jacob held on to his brother's heel while the two of them were in their mother's womb. When Jacob became a man, he struggled with God. He struggled with the angel and won. Jacob cried and pleaded with him. Jacob found him at Bethel, and he talked with him there.read more.
Jehovah is the God of Hosts. Jehovah is the name by which he is remembered.
I exercise myself always, to have a conscience void of offense toward God and toward men.
Strive to go in through the narrow door. Many people will try to go in and will not be able.
For we know that the law is spiritual. But I am fleshly and sold under sin. I do not understand what I am doing. For what I want to do I do not do. What I hate, I do. But if what I do not want to do, I do, I consent to the law that it is right.read more.
Now then it is no longer I that do it, but the sin that dwells in me. I know that good does not live in my human nature. For even though the desire to do good is in me, I am not able to do it. I do not do the good I want to do. Instead, I do the evil that I do not want to do. If I do what I do not want to do, this means that I am no longer the one who does it. Instead, it is the sin that lives in me. I find that this law is at work. When I want to do what is good, what is evil is the only choice I have. My inner person delights in the law of God. However I see a different law at work in my body. This law fights against the law that my mind approves of. It makes me a prisoner to the law of sin that is at work in my body. Miserable man that I am! Who will rescue me from the body undergoing this death? Thanks to God, through our Lord Jesus Christ! So then I can serve God's law only with my mind, while my human nature serves the law of sin.
Every man taking part in the contest is temperate in all things. They do it to obtain a corruptible crown but we do it to receive an incorruptible crown. I do not run without definite aim (purpose) and I do not fight like a man beating the air. But I discipline my body, and bring it into subjection, so that after I have preached to others I will not be disqualified.
I want to know him and the power of his resurrection. I want to know the fellowship of his sufferings and become conformed to his death. I wish to attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect. But I press on, that I may obtain that for which Christ Jesus also obtained.read more.
Brothers, I could not yet have obtained it. But one thing I do, I forget the things that are behind, and stretch forward to the things that are ahead. I press on toward the goal to the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
This is why we labor and strive, because we have our hope set on the living God, who is the Savior of all men, especially of those who believe.
Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, greets you, always striving for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God.
No one calls on your name or tries to hold on to you. You have hidden your face from us. You allowed us be ruined by our sins.
(possible spurious text) He was in agony and earnestly prayed. His sweat became, as it were great drops of blood falling down upon the ground.
Moses went back to Jehovah and asked: Why have you brought this trouble on your people? Why did you send me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak for you, he has treated your people cruelly, and you have done nothing at all to rescue your people.
Why do you reject me, O Jehovah? Why do you hide your face from me (turn from me)? Ever since I was young, I have been suffering and near death. I have endured your terrors, and now I am in despair. Your burning anger has swept over me. Your terrors have destroyed me.read more.
They swirl around me all day long like water. They surround me on all sides. You have taken my loved ones and friends far away from me. Darkness is my only friend!
How long, O Jehovah (YHWH), will I call for help and you do not hear? I cry out to you, save me from violence! And yet you do not save. Why do you make me see wickedness and immorality? Destruction and violence are before me. Strife exists and contention arises. The law is paralyzed and justice is never delivered. The wicked surround the righteous and deliver perverted justice.
