struggling in believing GOD cares…

if you’ve ever struggled to believe that GOD cares, you can relate to jacob.  if you’ve ever been a person who’s fought for what GOD wanted to give you, you can relate to jacob. 

many of us, we believe.  we believe that GOD loves us.  and we believe that GOD has a plan for our lives.  and we believe that HIS word is the truth.  we believe those things.  but when it comes to trusting, trusting GOD with my decisions and trusting GOD with my family, trusting GOD with my life we keep falling short.  jacob teaches us how to get past that barrier.  he comes to a crisis point in his life where he’s able to take what he believes and begin to make it real in his family and his life.

let me show you where that crisis began and how it happened.  maybe you can see yourself in the life of jacob.  jacob begins the road home when some significant things start to turn his life in the right direction.  

for one he begins to follow GOD’s direction in his life. 

in genesis 31.13 (niv) he reminds his wives as he is thinking about leaving haran that GOD had said to him, i am the GOD of bethel where you anointed the pillar and you made a vow to me.  now leave this land and go back to your native land and he does it.  he’s going to follow GOD’s direction, not his schemes.  GOD’s direction. 

and notice what GOD said to jacob.  GOD reminds jacob of the vow that he had made to him at bethel. go back to genesis 28 and start with verse 10 and you will read of the time of jacob’s ladder. it wasn’t much of a vow that jacob made there but apparently GOD heard it and GOD took him at where he was and allowed him to grow to where he wanted him to be.  that’s important to remember about the way GOD relates to us.  he begins to allow GOD’s redirection.

then he begins to recognize GOD’s protection. 

genesis 31, jacob hears GOD and he says, “ok, i’m going to go back to my native land.”  but he gets it wrong again.  he doesn’t do it the right way.  he gets out of town the same way as always – he runs away.  he doesn’t tell laban what’s happening.  he doesn’t let anybody know.  he runs.  and laban hears about this and he’s a schemer; he’s not letting anybody scheme him.  you can’t scheme a schemer.  so he runs after him. 

and as he runs after him and they meet, a crisis point comes into jacob’s life.  laban comes and begins to accuse jacob in chapter 31.22 and then in verse 29 (niv) he says, i have the power to harm you but last night the GOD of your fathers said to me, “be careful not to say anything to jacob either good or bad.”  last night GOD came to me and protected you.  it wasn’t your schemes, jacob.  it was GOD.  and maybe for the first time in his life he realized, GOD’s with me.  i’m not in this alone.  he was there last night before laban even got here to protect me. 

just a thought from the front porch…