Go forward & fear not.
This is an adaptation of a devotion that I read on the Mars Hill Church blog this morning, which was first adapted by them from a book, Morning & Evening, by Charles Spurgeon. Find it here.
I'll back up first though. I first stumbled upon the Old Testament story of Jacob over two years ago now. I was just a few weeks into my time in India, that first summer trip that would rock me to my core. I had thankfully begun the journey of prayer journaling, of simply writing to God all the happenings both around me as I served and within me as I began to fall in love. With my Savior, with a country, with a language, with a village, with everything He had placed around me. In the midst of extreme spiritual darkness, I learned how God had crafted us to shine like stars. I learned how God had specifically molded my heart, long before time began, for telling stories to those who have never heard them before.
Of course, questions still remained. Being the american I am, not fully converted to a circular view of time, wanting a 5-year plan, etc, I had doubts. What was God really doing as He enlarged my heart toward Him and to these beautiful people He had created? His answer came softly, almost hidden in the margins of that first prayer journal. But there it was. At the bottom of the very page upon which I expressed this deep love that He had grown in me: Genesis 28:15.
"Behold, I am with you, and I will keep you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."
Jacob had just been given his father's blessing to go and find a good, Godly woman to marry and begin the life that God had set up for him, one that he prophesied might be apart of the blessing God had bestowed upon Abraham. And so he set out. As he was going, he stopped to rest for the night. And he had a dream, a dream in which God Himself spoke to him, first confirming the word of Jacob's father, that his offspring would be blessed and numerous just as God had began way back with Abraham. And then verse 15 came into play. Jacob was about to head into a crazy series of events of trying to marry (check that out in Genesis 29), and end up with two wives. He would work for his father-in-law for many years, amassing just as much wealth as he, and facing this family's fear and hatred of him. At that point, the Lord told him to flee, to return again to the land of his father, and He reminded him of this promise: I am with you. As he went back, he had to face his estranged brother in fear. And there God met him again, reminded him of His promises, and they actually wrestled (crazy story in Genesis 32) until God blessed him and first called him by a new name that would be formally given later, when God would call Jacob back to Bethel, the place where God said He would bring him back to, back in chapter 28. It was there that God again affirmed the promise of Jacob's heritage and children.
One of those children, Joseph, was sold into slavery by his brothers and was taken to Egypt. After many years, God raised him up and gave him favor with Pharaoh, to where he became his right hand ruler. There was a famine in the land where his family was, and thus Jacob sent his other sons to go to Egypt to go get grain. Ironically enough, they would have to get it from their own brother whom they had sold. Joseph at first conceals his identity, but then openly reveals it, reconciling his brothers to himself, and then commanding them to go get the whole family to come down. Jacob was revived to hear that his son was still alive, and began to make the journey, away from the land of the Lord's promise, to a new land, a hostile land full of many gods.
But God assured his heart, with the words I read this morning, in Genesis 46:3-4.
"Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you back up again."
God had taken Jacob on a crazy journey, but it was always centered upon the promise that He was with him. That promise was unwavering, and should expel all fear from us, no matter what the journey brings.
This morning as I read these words, I was reminded of the crazy twists and turns that my own journey with God has made. I have already been blessed to go back to India once, and there was affirmed that it is indeed my "Bethel," where God would once again send me. Then crazy, mostly unexplainable health issues arose and frustrated all of "my plans." Everything is uncertain. God has not yet told me where to go from here. But He has placed in front of me an "Egypt" of sorts. In about a week & a half, I will be headed to the Mayo Clinic in Florida. Where I will most like be stuck with needles and see many different doctors and encounter many challenges along the way. Where I am hopeful that God Himself will provide a road of recovery from these health issues, perhaps even with a diagnosis, but more than all that, I am hopeful and praying that He uses this time to reveal to me what the next step I am to take is. Even farther above that, I am asking that as I meet many people, people and doctors from all over the world, that He would glorify Himself in me, that again I would shine like a star in a place of darkness.
I know He will do just that. For He is with me. He is with you as well. Do not be afraid. Trust His plan [not your own]. And go forward into whatever it is He has called you into.
I'll back up first though. I first stumbled upon the Old Testament story of Jacob over two years ago now. I was just a few weeks into my time in India, that first summer trip that would rock me to my core. I had thankfully begun the journey of prayer journaling, of simply writing to God all the happenings both around me as I served and within me as I began to fall in love. With my Savior, with a country, with a language, with a village, with everything He had placed around me. In the midst of extreme spiritual darkness, I learned how God had crafted us to shine like stars. I learned how God had specifically molded my heart, long before time began, for telling stories to those who have never heard them before.
Of course, questions still remained. Being the american I am, not fully converted to a circular view of time, wanting a 5-year plan, etc, I had doubts. What was God really doing as He enlarged my heart toward Him and to these beautiful people He had created? His answer came softly, almost hidden in the margins of that first prayer journal. But there it was. At the bottom of the very page upon which I expressed this deep love that He had grown in me: Genesis 28:15.
"Behold, I am with you, and I will keep you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you."
Jacob had just been given his father's blessing to go and find a good, Godly woman to marry and begin the life that God had set up for him, one that he prophesied might be apart of the blessing God had bestowed upon Abraham. And so he set out. As he was going, he stopped to rest for the night. And he had a dream, a dream in which God Himself spoke to him, first confirming the word of Jacob's father, that his offspring would be blessed and numerous just as God had began way back with Abraham. And then verse 15 came into play. Jacob was about to head into a crazy series of events of trying to marry (check that out in Genesis 29), and end up with two wives. He would work for his father-in-law for many years, amassing just as much wealth as he, and facing this family's fear and hatred of him. At that point, the Lord told him to flee, to return again to the land of his father, and He reminded him of this promise: I am with you. As he went back, he had to face his estranged brother in fear. And there God met him again, reminded him of His promises, and they actually wrestled (crazy story in Genesis 32) until God blessed him and first called him by a new name that would be formally given later, when God would call Jacob back to Bethel, the place where God said He would bring him back to, back in chapter 28. It was there that God again affirmed the promise of Jacob's heritage and children.
One of those children, Joseph, was sold into slavery by his brothers and was taken to Egypt. After many years, God raised him up and gave him favor with Pharaoh, to where he became his right hand ruler. There was a famine in the land where his family was, and thus Jacob sent his other sons to go to Egypt to go get grain. Ironically enough, they would have to get it from their own brother whom they had sold. Joseph at first conceals his identity, but then openly reveals it, reconciling his brothers to himself, and then commanding them to go get the whole family to come down. Jacob was revived to hear that his son was still alive, and began to make the journey, away from the land of the Lord's promise, to a new land, a hostile land full of many gods.
But God assured his heart, with the words I read this morning, in Genesis 46:3-4.
"Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you back up again."
God had taken Jacob on a crazy journey, but it was always centered upon the promise that He was with him. That promise was unwavering, and should expel all fear from us, no matter what the journey brings.
This morning as I read these words, I was reminded of the crazy twists and turns that my own journey with God has made. I have already been blessed to go back to India once, and there was affirmed that it is indeed my "Bethel," where God would once again send me. Then crazy, mostly unexplainable health issues arose and frustrated all of "my plans." Everything is uncertain. God has not yet told me where to go from here. But He has placed in front of me an "Egypt" of sorts. In about a week & a half, I will be headed to the Mayo Clinic in Florida. Where I will most like be stuck with needles and see many different doctors and encounter many challenges along the way. Where I am hopeful that God Himself will provide a road of recovery from these health issues, perhaps even with a diagnosis, but more than all that, I am hopeful and praying that He uses this time to reveal to me what the next step I am to take is. Even farther above that, I am asking that as I meet many people, people and doctors from all over the world, that He would glorify Himself in me, that again I would shine like a star in a place of darkness.
I know He will do just that. For He is with me. He is with you as well. Do not be afraid. Trust His plan [not your own]. And go forward into whatever it is He has called you into.
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