Meditation

10/26/2020

“So he went to h mi and kissed him. When Isaac caught the smell of his clothes, he blessed him and said, ‘Ah the smell of my son is like the smell of a field that the Lord has blessed. May God give you of heaven’s dew and of earth’s richness—-and abundance of grain and new wine. May nations serve yo and people bow down to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may the sons of your mothers bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless you be blessed.’” (Genesis27:27-29)

Isaac’s prayer was answered according to God’s intention not according to Isaac’s full understanding. Bless is the key type of prayer in the stories of Israel’s ancestors. Blessing here refers to agricultural fertility and national power. Jacob had put on Esau’s clothes and he had goatskins placed on his arm, as Esau was very hairy, and Isaac smelled the clothes and the skins and though he noted the voice was of his son Jacob, He blessed him as if he were Esau.

Isaac was deceived into blessing Jacob against his intention. His actions still fulfilled God’s purposes. God’s purposes are many times mysterious to what we think God should direct His people to do, but He can and has done what human planning and strategy did not take into consideration.

PRAYER FOR THE DAY:

Precious Abba, Your plans are much better than we can even imagine, and they are well thought out. Even when we try to anticipate Your plans, You have a way of taking our plans and making them work differently and certainly better than we had intended. Help us when we try to outwit You and guide us in the way of righteousness, always. Forgive us when we try to implement our plans and not yours. We love You, Abba, and strive to always walk in Your Light and not our own. Amen

THOUGHT OF THE DAY:

“Eternity is a long time to think about what you should have done.”

KNOWING GOD:

“Gideon said to God, ‘If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised—-look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.’ And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—-a bowlful of water. Then Gideon said to God, ‘Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew.’ That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; and the ground was covered with dew.” (Judges6:36–40)

God uses signs in the material world to bolster His people’s faith. Such signs joined to prayerful conversation with God reveal God’s power and presence with His people. For Gideon personally, the signs also signified divine patience with a young believer facing an awesome task.

Beloved, prayer seeks to be sure of God’s will. God can make us sure of His will for our lives as we talk to Him. His assurance may not take the dramatic form as it did in Gideon’s experience, but He responds to our need for confirmation of His call.

I AM:

“Jonathan said, ‘Come, then; we will cross over toward the men and let them see us. If they say to us, Wait there until we come to you,’ we will stay where we are and not go up to them. But if they say, Come up to us, we will climb up, because that will be our sign that the Lord has given them into our hands.” (1^st Samuel 14:8-10)

Here we clearly see that Jonathan recognized that the disposition of the battle was not in his hands, but the Lord’s hands. His conversation with his servant indicated he was asking God for a sign.

Second Thought of the Day:

“No my heart is troubled, and what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it was for this very reason I came to this hours. ‘Father, glorify your name!’ Then a vice came from heaven, ‘I have glorified I, and will glorify it again.’” (John 12:27-28)

Jesus demonstrated in prayer His determination to do the will of God. Prayer commits us to God’s will no matter the personal cost. In the case of military personnel who have taken an oath to protect and defend their country, constitution, and have essentially signed a “blank check” up to an including their lives to do just this. Fire/EMS/First Responders for all sorts of service related positions, do the same thing. Each one of us who have accepted God through His Son, Jesus Christ have also made such a commitment, though not all are called to give their lives, but multitudes throughout the centuries have done just that.

God works through human circumstances to reveal His position as the only God so we will honor and worship Him. God wants us to see reason to praise Him. He allows some things to happen because He plans to use them to display His powerful presence so we will glorify Him. God’s glory and the Son’s are practically identical here, another basis for the teaching of the Trinity.