June 24 2016

"The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge." ....Psalm 46:11

How very much our own life is like Jacob's history! Until God begins to deal with us, we are inclined to take a superior spiritually proud attitude to Jacob's intrigues, but as we begin to encounter the deviousness of our own thinking and self-will, we soon recognise that the man's essential character is also in ourselves! And please remember this, that what changed Jacob's life from vanity to profit was nothing less than the power of God's divine grace. Ishmael might talk of the God of Abraham, Esau could perhaps claim to have some dealings with the God of Abraham and of Isaac, but both of them, in doing so, could only look back. Their history was one of no personal experience of Him. We read nothing of the God of Ishmael or of the God of Esau. But for Jacob and for us too, this is not enough.

Today in the Church as the body of Christ, our God is a present refuge, a present power, who can do for us far more than we ever even imagined! Like Moses at the burning bush we must hear him say: "I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." In such a God there is hope for all of us! We can have a hope that we too can be delivered from the craftiness and deviousness of our own selves and from all that permeates our minds. That we too can be delivered from the proud imaginations of our heart, which includes our proud criticism of others!