Choose the right way……
Life of Jacob- Part 1
Genesis 32:1 “So Jacob went on his way, and the angels of God met him.”
Someone said, “God’s way will lead us to the destination chosen for us by God, which is God’s eternal plan for us, but our way will lead us to our ultimate destruction”. We have almost reached the end of this year and now it is very important that we take the right course of action in our life. The older I get the more I am convinced that crisis are a regular way of life. The only thing that really changes is how you deal with them. We can let our crisis handle us or we can let God handle our crisis. Did you catch that?
Now, in the scripture given above we read about a man called Jacob. We can learn many lessons from the life of Jacob and today’s devotion would be ‘part one’ of the series which is to follow for two more days. Jacob depended on his strength and wit to guide his life for 20 years. He committed many mistakes, walked in pride but now after many, many years, God instructs him to take a ‘different direction’ in his life. God says in Genesis 31:13” I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed the pillar and where you made a vow to Me. Now arise, get out of this land and return to the land of your kindred.” Jacob does not argue with God nor does he murmur and grumble about the big ‘turning back’ that he has to do during the prime time of his life. Jacob arrives at a stage in his life, when he understands that his present sufferings are because of him relying on his strength rather than God guiding his life. Each one of us should be convicted of our sins and rebellious attitude instead of blaming God for our sorrows. Remember GOD MAKES NO MISTAKES!
In a way you could say that God did away with Jacob’s pride - the self determination. It seems like that is often the last thing to go when we encounter the Lord. We give our hearts to God and see him strip away the flesh as we depend on Him more and more - but there is still that core of us that wants to preserve the self. But God has to break us, put barricades in our way, smash our plans and bring us to a stage where a ‘complete surrender’ has to be done. There is no longer a "me" - there is only a "He."
Recently my husband and me went on three days of Esther fasting of no food and water and the purpose was to ‘know His will for the coming year.” We wait on the Lord to know His will even if we have to make a small decision because we know that God hates a ‘proud heart’. Before we take a decision, we place prayer requests with people closely connected with our ministry and wait until we have a Word from God. We should also be careful never to be deceived with ‘false signals’ like ‘everything seems to be okay’. A senior Pastor of a church continuously asks his church to pray for Him, his travel and all decision that he takes, fearing never to be led by the flesh. If such senior servants of God need prayer support, how much more do we need friends? Please think about this! Many wrong moves, rash decision, hasty steps, and final crash could have been avoided, if only we could have been humble and waited on God.
My dear friend, may be you had to go through many heart breaks, pain, failure and disappointments, but get up, put the past behind you, move closer to God and in the path that God shows you. Walking with God is a daily decision. It means saying “Yes” to God and God’s ways and saying “No” to world’s ways. Lessons from the life of Jacob will continue tomorrow as well.
