“Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go and will bring you back to this land, for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” Genesis 28:15
The story of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob has a different meaning to me today than it did back then. Why? Well, because I have learned to read it prayerfully myself without the interpretations of other commentators, I have learned how to research the text, study the context, and seek God’s wisdom in scripture before my knowledge or understanding of the text from years of listening to the interpretations from others.
Abraham is known to be the father of faith. Did you know that God told Abraham he was to be the father of nations? Yet, Sarah’s impatience and disbelief led her to take matters into her own hands and convince Abraham to sleep with her servant Hagar to get a head start on that promise. Not that Abraham put up a fight or argument. He did what Sarah asked, knowing what God had promised.
Many times in our lives, we make decisions based on what we think is best because we cannot wait for God to decide when the time is right. Without prayer, faith, or trust in what God may see better for us or what promises God has in store, what we decide to do in haste may haunt us later. Even so, God will not abandon us on our journey through the circumstances, but we may feel at times that we are alone.
Lately, our lives may not be a walk in the park or a bed of roses, and there doesn’t seem to be a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. We may sometimes feel like we do not deserve something better and this cannot be further from the truth.
Jesus invites us to take heart to be courageous, have faith, and trust God. It doesn’t matter how troubled we are, how much unsettling news we’ve been receiving lately, or what other stuff is getting in our way. What matters is that we look up, not to seek God from a distance but rather as a reminder of how small our seemingly big problems are to God. There is nothing that God cannot handle or use to make us stronger, increase our faith, and solidify our trust in God.
God has brought salvation and hope to us through the act of love Jesus displayed on the cross for the world to see and come to know. God bestows blessings upon us every day. Gratitude for all God has done for us and continues to do transforms our hearts, minds, souls, and lives forever. Philippians 1:6 invites us to be “confident of this that the one who began a good work in you will continue to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” This passage is a reminder that God has no intention of leaving us.
Where is God in your life today? Where are you headed? Are you going with or without God?
I share the Welcoming Prayer by Father Thomas Keating with you. It is my go-to prayer when focusing on my alone time with Jesus, receiving healing, and when I want to let go and let God do with and in my life what God knows is best for me.
Welcome, welcome, welcome.
I welcome everything that comes to me today because I know it’s for my healing.
I welcome all thoughts, feelings, emotions, persons, situations, and conditions.
I let go of my desire for power and control.
I let go of my desire for affection, esteem, approval, and pleasure.
I let go of my desire for survival and security.
I let go of my desire to change any situation, condition, person, or myself.
I open to the love and presence of God and God’s action within. Amen.
In Christ,
Pastor Iraida