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Monday, January 30, 2012

Gen 32:26 and Matt 20:15 "LORD, I Come" (January 30)

Jacob wanted to draw near to God more than he wanted his problems to vanish.  What about me?  I didn't think I would be where I am today.  It's not what the world calls successful.  But we have followed God's leading and you just cannot be in a better place than where God has taken you. 

Gen 31:5 Your father no longer sees me with favor but God, my Father, has been with me.  Jacob returns to his homeland and is met with opposition from his father-in-law.  But there is One Who sees all that is happening to us in our lives ~~~ Is [God] allowed to do what [He] chooses with what belongs to us? Matt 20:15

Gen 3:12 I have seen all that has been done to you.  I am the God of Bethel where you made a vow to me.

Gen 32:9 Now arise and return that God may do you good.  And that "good" may be way different than what this world calls good.

Gen 32:26 "I won't let you go unless you bless me." No earthly blessings.  Blessings from Above.  So, what does that look like in our lives this day?

     "Am I wrong for wanting the trouble to go away
       More than I want to draw near to God
       More than I want to enjoy Him and
       Reflect Him in this situation I am in.
       Change that! Use this! Satisfy me!
       Bless my doctor with medical wisdom.
       Are those prayers wrong?
       Yes, when they express the deepest passion of my heart.
       No, not when they express desires that are subordinate
       to my passion for God Himself, for His Glory to revealed.
       Pray not to change that, use this, or satisfy me but rather
       LORD, I come."                         The Pressure's Off


6 comments:

  1. What is fair anyway? What does good look like? Jacob was treated unfairly for twenty years, and after cheating Essau out of his birthright, met his brother face to face to find favor in his brother's eyes. Wonder if that sin was what he was afraid of or if he just didn't want to face the music with Essau. God promised favor and He delivered. Not because Jacob was that great. Did twenty years of service to Laban count for anything? Maybe. Maybe God had seen that Jacob had changed. Or maybe he hadn't changed enough to be used by God. So, Jacob wrestled it all out with God and was blessed.

    Jacob becomes Israel because he wrestled with God and lived to tell it. Is wrestling with God a good thing? Jacob's name meant "deceiver, grabber." He was at the end of his strength fleeing his family history, and then facing his own deception of Essau head on. Exhausted, depressed, and spent mentally, he then wrestles with all that has happened and is desperate for God alone. Frederick Buechner, characterizes Jacob’s divine encounter at the Jabbok River as the “magnificent defeat of the human soul at the hands of God.” We can easily recognize our own struggled: fears, loneliness, pain-and God gives him a new name Israel. For he has seen God face to face.

    Do we wrestle God in what He has for us? Are we desperate for blessing? Are we looking to Him for our resources? How will we use them? And by the way, what idols do we have tucked away in camel packs that we allow to slip into our lives unnoticed?

    Is it fair? Maybe that's not the question at all. We don't want fair because none of us would survive. Let us ask for mercy, for Grace to His good pleasure, not fair, Lord forbid. The kingdom of God is like the master who gave the same wages to the one who came early to work and the one who came late. It was to his good pleasure to pay them both generously. Sometimes, generous blessing doesn't seem like enough. Lord, forgive me. We struggle too, Lord in these areas. Help our hearts to purge idols, western ideals of success, and seek after the eternal treasure that come from You alone. Blessed indeed are we. Blessed richly by the Master's touch. Even when we limp because of it!

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  2. Oh, my Annette how you have the gift to write and discern what the scripture say. You and the others on here, blow me away with you ability to share what He shows you.

    I write like I talk, or so I've been told and I know that it does not come across like yours and Bev's does and I just want to say how thankful I am that He has allowed me to me on here and learn from what you all glean.

    I really have no thoughts on Jacob etc this morning...to full of what happened at church yesterday. God showed up and showed out!!! had a guest evangelist from Birmingham....he reaped what had been sown...57 people came forward in the two services...35 of which made professions of faith. Now that is worth a shout and a loud Amen and maybe even dancing in the aisles....our Pastor is in the Holy Land and I am sure he has been given the report..know he is doing just about all that I just said!!! One of my young friends in the second service saw a young man on his knees crying and a woman left her seat and put her arm around him and walked down front with him.

    I have a dear friend whose car was hit by a deer on January 12...it went into the passenger seat of the car....she had glass in her eyes, broke her nose in three places and the deer's blood was all over the back seat, but none was on her Bible and Journal in the seat where the deer landed. She did NOT lose her sight and I talked to her yesterday at church. I had prayed for her as I walked out of the worship center to get on the elevators to go to the second floor and there she was....I hugged her and cried....the best part is that her two daughter in their early forties, and they are both believers...because of the accident they have totally reconciled and have each other's backs NOW......I raised my hand right there and said Praise God. Sylvia said she would have died IF it would have done that...I told her that I was thankful that she did not have to die to bring that about....Now is that not a dancing story too....I was on cloud nine the rest of the day!!!!

    Life is not fair, nor is it just. God is merciful and full of grace and I am really seeing that it truly is ALL grace...and nothing else. I am a blessed woman. And I am right there with you Annette, what idols do we have tucked away in our heart that we need to deal with and dispose of....will not be a pretty sight. The very best place to be is right where God has taken you and not where you have put yourself or deceived to put yourself,that place comes up empty every time.

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  3. Annette, my oh my...our western ideals of success...idols tucked under our laps...and a limp! Loved your comments!

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  4. Mary Lou, I love your excitment over things that matter for Eternity! So does God. I am looking on my bulletin board at school right next to me as I type and there sits a note from you with one of the dearest expressions of God's Goodness to me through someone I've never met. Love you girl!

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  5. Welcome my lifelong friend, Mindy. We met at Seminary and she has been a lifeline of God's mercy and love to me all my adult days. She and her husband planted a church in Irvine a decade or 2 or 3 ago and they are doing the work of the ministry, Gal 4:19, forming Christ in many. Plotting away. She's like Erma Bombeck and a bible scholar all rolled up into one. You're going to love my friend!
    Hey Mindy!

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  6. Mary Lou, you have the gift of ENCOURAGEMENT! Your words always uplift and glorify Him so beautifully. WHAT a day you had at church yesterday! And your friend's protection from that deer coming through the windshield! That's always one of my fears being in the country driving at night. She had a shield of protection and her Bible too, untouched--amazing! I'm celebrating with you!

    WELCOME MINDY! Hope you jump in and share what lingers for you each day as we read OT and NT this year. We're finding an astonishing overlap and richness to reading them side by side! Glad you are joining us!

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