Three Steps Foward Two Steps Back (Gen. 32:13-21)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 02-16-2007

 

My Worship Time                                                                       Focus:  Back to Scheming 

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                    Reference:  Genesis 32:13-21

 

            Message of the verses:  “13 So he spent the night there. Then he selected from what he had with him a present for his brother Esau: 14 two hundred female goats and twenty male goats, two hundred ewes and twenty rams, 15 thirty milking camels and their colts, forty cows and ten bulls, twenty female donkeys and ten male donkeys. 16 He delivered them into the hand of his servants, every drove by itself, and said to his servants, "Pass on before me, and put a space between droves." 17 He commanded the one in front, saying, "When my brother Esau meets you and asks you, saying, ’To whom do you belong, and where are you going, and to whom do these animals in front of you belong?’ 18 then you shall say, ’These belong to your servant Jacob; it is a present sent to my lord Esau. And behold, he also is behind us.’" 19 Then he commanded also the second and the third, and all those who followed the droves, saying, "After this manner you shall speak to Esau when you find him; 20 and you shall say, ’Behold, your servant Jacob also is behind us.’" For he said, "I will appease him with the present that goes before me. Then afterward I will see his face; perhaps he will accept me." 21 So the present passed on before him, while he himself spent that night in the camp.”

           

            Jacob prayed a very wonderful and Biblical prayer to the Lord, and then afterwards he went back to deciding to do things his own way and did not trust in the Lord to answer the prayer that he just prayed.  Jacob went back to business as usual, and showed that there was still fear and not trust in his life.

 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I can totally relate to Jacob in this situation, for it seems that when I learn to walk by faith that it comes in spurts, but each spurt causes me to grow closer to the Lord, so hopefully this life of mine, although it goes like Chuck Swindoll’s book “Three steps Forward and Two Steps Back,” is at least heading forward.  Dr. Wiersbe stated earlier in this book from a quote “men are not to be judged by the presence or absence of faults, but by the direction of their lives.”  I take comfort in this statement, for at this time in my life it is the two steps back part and it is very painful.

 

The Word of God has been convicting and challenging to my heart as I read and studied it this morning.

 

My Steps of Faith Today:  Continue to trust the Lord to direct my path and to teach me contentment and to give me the grace to survive in this life that has twists and turns that are sometimes hard to handle.