SoulFit: Wrestling With God

Some struggles don’t feel like a quiet prayer. They feel like a fight you can’t tap out of. We talk about what happens when the opponent isn’t your circumstances, your past, or even your own habits, but God himself and the hard work of surrender. 

We start with a story that’s as raw as it gets: Jacob alone by the river in Genesis 32, wrestling until daybreak and refusing to let go without a blessing. From there we connect that moment to real life and real pressure: marriage strain, missed opportunities, financial stress, addiction, anger, anxiety, and the kind of unanswered prayer that makes you wonder if heaven went silent. We unpack what “wrestling with God” actually looks like and why it can be a sign of faith instead of failure. 

A big theme is waiting and readiness. Sometimes the blessing we want right now would crush us if it arrived today. So God uses the struggle to build the man who can carry what he’s asking for, shaping patience, empathy, humility, and deeper trust. We also talk about the “limp” Jacob carries afterward, how real change becomes visible in the way we walk, react, lead, and love the people closest to us. 

If you’re wrestling, you’re not alone, and you’re not disqualified. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs it, and leave a review so more men can find the road and keep walking it.

https://aarondegler.com/

Transcript

SoulFit Crossover Introduction

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome back to SoulFit. Thanks for taking a little time to join us this week. This week we're going to do a little something different. I co-host a show called a podcast called The Road Traveled. I host it with my friend Alan Hugator each week or every other week we put out an episode to really share about the road we've traveled. It's really geared to a uh Christian-based uh podcast towards to help men um along their road their traveled. And so we're just a couple guys that that share our journey and our road traveled. And we take some scripture and we show how do we as men apply it. But not only do men can they take it into their life, but also anybody listening can really take what we have to share each each every other week to put it into their life. So I just wanted to share that an episode with you. So enjoy this week's episode of On the Road Traveled called Wrestling with God. Thank you for joining me, and here's the show, The Road Traveled.

SPEAKER_00 1:00

Welcome to The Road Traveled, a Christian podcast for men where real faith meets real life. Through honest conversations and personal stories, we help you apply God's word to your everyday journey by sharing the road we've traveled. Whether you're walking through challenge, change, or calling, this is your road. And you don't have to travel it alone. Now, let's take the next step with your hosts, Aaron Degler and Alan Hugator.

Childhood Wrestling As A Metaphor

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Welcome back to the Road Travel. Thanks for taking a little time to join us this week. I'm your host, Aaron Degler, along with your host Alan Hugator. We're so happy that you're here, that you have found us on the road that you're traveling. Um, we just come to you each each episode just to share a little bit of scripture, a little bit of experiences that we've had along our road that hopefully it just helps you travel your road that you're on from our successes, our failures, to really everything in between what works, what doesn't work, and really how do we take some scripture and apply it into our everyday life? So that is what we're gonna try to do today. When I was a kid, my brother and I, we used to wrestle in our room. He was seven years older, we'd always wrestle, we'd always get in trouble because back then it was in the 80s, yeah, early 80s, wrestling was a big thing. We live, you know, about an hour and a half from Dallas. So it was the sportatorium, was a big old wrestling. I mean, that's where it was at. And you I mean, it used to be where you could go to Walmart and line up to get the wrestlers' autographs. They used to come to the to the rodeo arena here and put a wrestling ring up in the middle.

SPEAKER_02 2:44

See, it was Northside Coliseum when I was a kid. Okay. They're in North Fort Worth or you know, right there on Exchange Street. That's where it was on Saturday nights. You you go watch wrestling. I think maybe it was Monday nights and it was aired on Saturday nights, whichever.

Jacob Wrestles God In Genesis

SPEAKER_01 2:59

And and it's a lot different now. I mean, I mean, now you got the WWE, I mean, it's way different. Um back then so commercialized. It used to have way out-of-shape wrestlers. I mean, the wrestlers now look so much different. Way different. But wrestling was always a big thing to me. I always enjoyed it as a kid. And those wrestlers, they'd get in the ring together and they'd wrestle around and you know, ag it on, and you know, have some fake blood and all the fake moves, and somebody would win, somebody would lose, sometimes they'd get disqualified, but it was always physical. It'd always get kind of physical. And really, today we're gonna talk about what happens when you're wrestling and your opponent is God. And, you know, what happens when faith gets physical? And we're wrestling with God, and we're gonna kind of start there. And I just wanted to read about a, you know, we think, you know, wrestling match. There was a wrestling match in the Bible between God and Jacob. So we're gonna meet up with God and Jacob in it it's in Genesis 32, 22, 30, 31, where we find Jacob. He's about about to leave and and meet Esau. And so I'm gonna start in that in Genesis 32, 22 through 31. It says, That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two female servants, and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabak. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob's hip, so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, Let me go, for it is daybreak. But Jacob replied, I will not let you go unless you bless me. The man asked him, What is your name? Jacob, he answered. Then the man said, Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome. Jacob said, Please tell me your name. But he replied, Why do you ask my name? Then he blessed him there. So Jacob called the place Penil, saying, It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared. The sun rose above him as he passed Penel, and he was limping because of his hip. Jacob was wrestling with God. And I think every man, as we as we've talked about, that follows God has wrestled with him. Wrestled with him not because he hates God, not necessarily because he's lost his faith, but because sometimes maybe he's in the middle of becoming who God called him to be.

When Calling Collides With Resistance

SPEAKER_02 5:59

Oh, for you know, for years I would have these little thoughts, and I guess this was little wrestling matches as you would say, that the Holy Spirit was working on me, and I'd get saying, you know, God's wanting me to do something. What is it? And I said, Well, I was supposed to be a preacher. I don't, I ain't no preacher. And, you know, I wasn't living right for God at the time and everything. And it just kept wrestling and wrestling, and then finally came to the point that I really wrestled with him. I said, God, what is it? What is it that you're wanting me to do? What have and I said, What is my talent? I mean, what what can I do? What what everybody has a purpose? What is my purpose? And then he kind of showed me the light to that over time, and but that is one of the many times that I've wrestled with God. I've wrestled with myself before too, and I always lose that match, but I wrestled with God, and it's wonderful that that's one way he shows us our way in this life. That he presents it and we're we're wrestling because we're we're inside trying to find the answer, and that's why we're wrestling with him is trying to find an answer.

Prayers That Feel Unanswered

SPEAKER_01 7:20

And as the scripture says, it's you know, Jacob, he was on one side of the river, he was alone, he was afraid, he was facing his past, which was Esau, and he was about to step in the future. How many times we felt alone, afraid, looking at our past, who I used to be, and we're about to get into the future, and we you know it says that Jacob was left alone and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. And it wasn't a you know, it wasn't like the right wrestling matches at the rodeo arena. It wasn't, you know, ten minutes. Right. It was all night long. And so what do what do our wrestling matches with God look like sometimes? Maybe it's that season that, you know, why are we why are we wrestling with him? Maybe it's when God's plan disrupts ours. And it's not just a night. It might be a season, it might be weeks, it might be months, it might be years that we're wrestling with God because maybe it's a a marriage that is feeling really strained. Maybe it's promotions that we keep not getting. Maybe it's diagnosis of medical conditions that we get in our family, personally, with others in our family, that we're saying, why is this happening?

Waiting For Blessings Without Being Crushed

SPEAKER_02 8:45

What's it comes to mind to me about prayer? How many times have you prayed for something and you didn't get an answer? So you feel like you're you're resting with God. Why don't you answer me, God? I've prayed on this, I have prayed on my marriage, I have prayed on this financial struggle, I don't see no way out, I don't see no lights, you hadn't answered my prayer. What's the deal? What is it? You expect an answer lots of times, and we're resting with if you would say that with him. I need an answer. What is my calling? What do I you want me to do? Why ain't you take care of this problem with me? You said if you would come to you in prayer that prayers would be answered. I'm I'm praying. Maybe I ain't listening. And that's what I found in my situation a lot of times with my wrestling. I may not be listening very close. And then if I get a hint to what he's trying to tell me, then do I accept it or rebel against it? Okay. You know. As I said earlier, am I supposed to sell out everything I got before I can serve him truly? And go give it all away and everything before I can serve him truly that way? That's real quick. No, but that may not be the right answer. It might be that that's what it takes for me. May not be for someone, but there's a lot of ways to serve him. But are you listening to God? Because when you're wrestling, are you truly listening to what he's trying to tell you? That's the wrestling match. It's not a physical struggle like you went to the arena scene. It's a struggle about trying to understand what is he trying to tell us. We ask the question, but what is he trying to tell us?

SPEAKER_01 10:38

Mm-hmm. And maybe the match, the wrestling match is about we ask for those blessings. You know, don't we usually go to him and ask for blessings? Something that we want, and we don't get it. And we go, God, you didn't answer my prayer. But in that, we've been another group have been doing a series on waiting, and it's talk, and we were talking about sometimes if we were to get that blessing, it would crush us because we are not who God needs us to be to be able to accept that blessing. We have to wrestle with God before we get into our future blessings because if we were to get our blessings now, we wouldn't be able to handle it. We wouldn't be able to take what God has blessed us with. We have to first get stronger in that wrestling match to understand what do we need to grow in? Maybe it's patience, maybe it's empathy, maybe it's understanding, maybe it's our faith before we get to step into that blessing. Because we're not ready for that blessing. We never, we I don't won't say never, but I I find myself probably more often than not asking for something that I want. I don't say, God, you know, I need I'm looking for this, but I really see some character flaws that I that you that I probably need to work on before you refore I receive some of those blessings, kind of can't handle them. Because why why do we not do that? Because those are hard things to wrestle with. Those are hard things to go up against, especially when we're wrestling with some of those things that we have to take care of.

The Limp That Proves Change

Stop Hiding Struggles And Addictions

SPEAKER_02 12:08

At the end of God and Jacob's wrestling match, had Jacob learned something, had he changed? Mm-hmm. This is the most beautiful part of the story for me, and that is that God touched his hip and he had a limp from then on. When we change our lives, we may not be limping physically, but people can see in our walk on this life that we have changed. Jacob changed, he got a limp, he went along with what God's plan was. He got a new name, new identity, name, new identity, and everything. He had a limp, but that message to me is our walk changes where people can see the difference in our lives. Mine's changing. I'm pretty slow, mentally and unchanged. But people are starting to see. I hope that people can see that I am walking closer to the Lord every day. And I work on it. And I've had a lot of wrestling matches to get me there. But that was what really got me in this message here was that people could see because of his limp that him and God and he had changed, and he's walking the path that God wants him to walk now. And that's what I would like to have. And I think each one of us, when we make some changes and we start following God's instructions more, we may have a change in our walk. We will have a change in our walk where people can see it. And and and it's, you know, and I just think this is a great example of But isn't that one of the greatest testimonials of all when people can see the change in our walk in this life. That's the biggest testimonial. You can get up and talk all day long, but it's your actions. It was his limp that people could see. It was the way we walk that he could people could see.

SPEAKER_01 14:02

And I think so many times as Christians, we hide our wrestling matches. And I and I think we should share more about Well, I've lost most of mine, so I'm not boasting about them. But but we, you know, because God could have easily overpowered Jacob. Easily. I mean, there was I mean, there it was a no-match. Sure. It was it was no match. But what did he do? He let him go all night long wrestling with him without ever saying, I win, you lose, because he was trying to. God had a purpose. God had a purpose. And because he needed him to go through that to be able to change him, to wrestle with him. And I think and I think sometimes we try to hide our wrestling matches that look like a marriage that is on the rocks, that looks like an alcohol addiction, gambling addiction. You know, different kinds of things that we're not doing like we should, but and we're wrestling with them, trying to, maybe it's the way we treat people on an ongoing basis. Maybe we're just not good to other people. Maybe we the way we talk to other people are still. It's endless. But those are things that we wrestle with, and I think we don't want our dirty laundry aired out. Because what if somebody sees our undies hanging out there on the our tidy whiteys out there on the line? They wear tidy whiteys. Well, everybody does. Everybody wrestles. Now, it looks different. All of our wrestling matches look different, just like in the arena when I would watch wrestling matches. You had some big guys, some little guys, some well built, all different shapes and sizes, but what were they doing? Doesn't matter what they look like, they were wrestling. They were all wrestling, and it was all physical and it was all hard. It didn't matter who was paired up. I mean, the same thing is true. It doesn't matter what our issue is that we're wrestling with God with, the we're still wrestling. And the hope is just like you said, that we get touched and we change because of that. And we have multiple wrestling matches. So we don't just change once. I think we're ongoing changing, and people go, even if they see you next year.

Wrestling As A Tool For Growth

SPEAKER_02 16:14

Oh, you got another match immediately. Yeah. It's some other topic, it's some other issue. But if God give you the answer real quick and easy, you wouldn't learn very much. So it's a tool of learning. It's a tool of teaching that God has. Because what happens when we do everything for our kids? What kind of a what kind of adults do they grow up with? They don't learn much. They don't learn much. Then they go out and then whenever they face something like that, they can't handle it. God is teaching us constantly. But if you're willing to go and go ahead and wrestle with him over something, honestly, and try to figure it out, then he will help teach us the way. It's just one of his tools that he uses because we are trying to be better. We are talking to him. If we wasn't, there's no wrestling match. He may say something to you once in a while, but you don't take the challenge. No, you don't hear it. You don't either hear it. If you hear it a little bit and then you, I ain't taking that challenge, I'm gonna go back and do what I want to do. You're not doing it. But if you take the challenge to wrestle with him, he's gonna show you the answers. There's gonna be a lot of answers coming. You may not see them real quick, just like any prayer or anything, but there is a learning lesson here. And then you like I said, well, go to another one. And when you go to another one, it will never end for you. They're not that complicated as maybe some of those early ones were. But it's I I wrestle over issues of am I doing what you want me to? And we wrestle about them all, and he'll say yes, no, whatever, and I'm still looking.

Fire Brings Impurities To The Surface

SPEAKER_01 17:48

And you know, how how is silver purified? Silver purified by fire. And what happens when it's purified in fire? All of those impurities rise to the top. And our impurities look like impatience, anger, anxiety, and we try to hide those. But by putting us under the fire, by putting a pressure on us, by wrestling with us, we're bringing out those impurities, those things that we realize, oh, that wrestling might show me that I really kind of have some issues with this. I need to, this is a challenge to me, a challenge to change. Like Kim and I were talking the other day, and it might be hard to believe, but I used to have a short fuse. I was not didn't have a very good, I mean, I could blow up just like that. And if I was trying to fix something, tools would go flying, everything would go flying. And I've really worked on that over the years, and that and people that meet me now go, would find that very hard to believe. It's because I've changed and it's a noticeable difference. And really, Kim's the only one that can notice it, and my kids, but because they've been with me the whole time. Sure. I'm gonna say you you're different. Um there is even times now when sometimes things happen and she'll like, oh, is this gonna, you know, and then I just she'll and she just told me the other day, you're you're different. You know, you don't you don't you don't act like that anymore.

Peter’s Slow Growth Through Patience

SPEAKER_02 19:13

There's two things, age and and getting close to God will both help that. Maybe help me. But you know, a few weeks ago or a few episodes ago, we talked about who we were similar to as a character in the Bible, and and I chose Peter. But did Peter and Jesus have any ration matches? If you study a little bit about Peter, early Peter, they had lots of them. Peter was headstrong. Peter had a quick temper like you and I. You know, Peter was kind of rebellious in ways, and he was having a hard time. He wanted to follow, and then he didn't, you know, and but what about these other guys? They're not acting right, and this, that, and the other, and Jesus was patient in wrestling with Peter. Because I really see Peter wrestling with him a lot. He didn't fall right in there, huh?

SPEAKER_01 20:00

He just didn't fall into the line.

SPEAKER_02 20:01

No, not at all. I think I was reading Jesus had to change his name from Simon to Peter, but he did, he had acres of them, and Jesus wrestled with him with patience. And he became one of the one of the strongest apostles of all. Not the only one, but I mean, you know, he became just being a just being an apostle is enough.

What Are You Wrestling With Now

SPEAKER_01 20:25

Yeah, and he was changed. He was changed because of those wrestling matches. And and I think it's just it's so important that we acknowledge that and accept that. And so really the challenge is, you know, to to those listening are, you know, what are you wrestling with right now? What what kind of issue?

SPEAKER_02 20:46

Don't fight it. Mm-hmm. Some people start wrestling with something and they get all worked up and then they go get, you know, and they go, and it just it wires on them too much. And if they chill a little bit and and burst, I mean, like everything, take it to God. And he may not answer you right off the bat.

SPEAKER_01 21:05

You may wrestle longer than one night with him. And but it's the but then it's the question, if he's not answering, the question is to ask, what is God changing in me? Through this match, you know, it begins us to think there's no answer, but what is he trying to change in me? And then maybe therein lies some of the things that you're looking for.

SPEAKER_02 21:28

Oh, yeah. You have to make the changes sometimes before you can see the answer.

SPEAKER_01 21:33

Because you begin to change the questions you ask. Maybe sometimes we're not asking the right questions. You know, we're not getting a blessing, and we keep trying to fight for the blessing instead of receive the blessing. But if we receive the blessing, we have to be who God needs us to be to be able to receive and handle that blessing. Uh-huh. So we're not crushed by the blessing.

SPEAKER_02 22:00

Yeah, again, like I said, if he handles you that answer to your question real simple, real easy, real fast, what have you learned?

SPEAKER_00 22:09

Mm-hmm.

Keep Wrestling Until Breakthrough

SPEAKER_02 22:10

Some of the hardest lessons that you'll learn took time to figure out. So everybody wrestles. So don't get discouraged and don't let that take over your relationship with God or your affect you and your daily relationship with your family. Understand that you will have I'm talking to myself out loud here again. We will have wrestling matches because we don't have the answers, but we are seeking answers. And God's there to give them to us. But go ahead and accept them and then just go right on and keep right on working toward it. And I don't think he ever not answers them. It just may not be the way we look for the answer.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

Because it really the the it's really about not quitting God, not quitting faith, not quitting our growth. But we just wrestle and keep wrestling until there's a breakthrough. Because that's really what he's calling us to do is wrestle with him until there's a breakthrough. And that breakthrough may be a season, maybe longer than that. Maybe a tough one.

SPEAKER_02 23:28

Yeah, it may be that that marriage didn't work out. It may be that that job didn't work out. And you may go through a big financial crisis getting there. But you will stay strong and you will keep working on your financial situation and it will get better in time, I'm sure. But immediate answers don't always happen.

SPEAKER_01 23:50

We have to just keep keep wrestling, keep trusting God, trusting our faith, and trusting that it's a that we're not going through it, but we're growing through it.

Prayer And Closing Share Request

SPEAKER_02 24:04

Let's go to the Lord and I'll talk to him. Father, we come to you simple men that that we don't understand. We don't phantom how that you answer the questions that we have. We think they're important and sometimes they're not. And but as we come closer to you, Lord, we know that you're there waiting with open arms to receive us. And in time, our questions will be answered. We thank you as a loving God that you are, that you take time. We come to you in the name of your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ's name. Amen. Amen.

SPEAKER_01 24:47

Thank you to BQU for joining us on the road travel. We hope that our conversation has found you on the road that you can take with you and can help with the road that you travel. And always please share it with others. Pass it along if you find some value in it, so that others might we might find others on the road they're traveling. And we just look forward to seeing on the next episode. And down the road, we're all traveling.

SPEAKER_00 25:11

You've been listening to The Road Travel, where real faith meets real life. Remember, every step matters, even the hard ones. So keep walking your road with courage, conviction, and Christ leading the way. Until next time, your hosts, Aaron and Allen, say we'll see you down the road.