Daily Reading
Daily Thought
Jacob was the conniving son of his mother and she conspired with him to deceive his family. He stole his brother’s birthright, then his Father’s blessing, and was on the run because big brother Esau was mad. Jacob was alone. He “left Beersheba and went toward Haran, and he came to a certain place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set” (Genesis 28:10). He was somewhere, but who knows where, and he laid his head on a rock and fell asleep and “he dreamed, and behold, there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven. And behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it” (Genesis 28:12). You do not have to go to someplace special to meet God. You only need your eyes opened. Jacob was in the middle of nowhere and it was exactly the right place for God was there with him.
“Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, ‘Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it’” (Genesis 28:16). God used Jacob’s circumstances, bad circumstances of Jacob’s own making, to bring Jacob to “this place,” and he came to Jacob, not because Jacob deserved God’s attention, but because he was now desperate for God’s attention. It is the common course of man and woman that we must be brought down before we can be lifted up, and it is the love of God for us that he meets us in a certain place.
What if God only paid attention to us when we deserved it?
Daily Prayer
God of heaven, thank You for looking down on me, even when I am not looking up. You saved me before I knew I needed rescuing. I was spiritually asleep and You showed up, but not really. You were always there. It is me that became awakened to Your presence.
Now, my Lord, I know that You are in me, that You have numbered my days and created me for a purpose, for good works that glorify Your name. I commit each day to You, because by Your grace, I am a child of the Almighty.
Amen
Daily Question
What are some of the “places” where God met you and got your attention?
