Word of Encouragement (04/07/2022)

And Jacob said, "O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O LORD who said to me, 'Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,' 10 I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. 11 Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. 12 But you said, 'I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.'" (Gen. 32:9-12).

Yesterday, we learned from Jacob’s prayer that we should appeal to God’s covenant faithfulness when we pray. Another lesson we can draw from Jacob’s prayer is to pray according to God’s promises: “...O LORD who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good.... But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude’” (vv. 9, 12).

We have talked on numerous occasions about the importance of praying according to God’s will. One sure way of doing this is to pray according to His promise. Of course, we must keep in mind that not every promise we find in the Bible is for everyone, not even for every Christian. Certain promises were given to specific individuals in specific situations, which applied to them only. We cannot expect that the promises God made to Jacob (e.g., v. 9, 13) are made to each of us. This is obvious since Jacob had a unique status in redemptive history as one of the Patriarchs of God’s people. Not every one of us will have many descendants, for one. And the promise that Jacob would return to his homeland, which was Canaan, does not apply to all of us. Many north Korean Christians, who came down to the south during the Korean War, never made it back.

But we can see that God’s promise to do good to Jacob applies to us as well. How do we know this? Do we pick and choose arbitrarily which ones seem more likely or easier to be applied to everyone? No. One basic rule is whether there are other instances of the same promise given to God’s people as a whole, especially to the new covenant believers. In this case, we have Rom. 8:28: “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”

Praying according to God’s promise can take different forms. One is that of lament. This happens when we see a large gap between God’s promise and our circumstances. As a result, we are confused and feel our faith shaken. So, in our disorientation, we cry out to God to fulfill His promise and confirm His faithfulness to us (which seems to be what Jacob is doing here). This may happen because God’s time has not yet come. In this case, the Holy Spirit will encourage us to wait patiently by looking to God as His greatest Treasure and trusting in His eternal character rather than the constantly changing circumstances. Or our lament may be a result of our expectation not being aligned with what God has in mind. In such cases, the Spirit will challenge our understanding of God’s promise and refine it to be more biblical.

Another is that of simple faith. We pray because we are excited by the generosity of God’s promise and we know and believe that it is meant for us. This is where we’d like to be in our spiritual maturity, isn’t it? It may be almost impossible for us not to have some kind of gut reaction to a sudden change in our circumstances, such as fear, shock, sadness, or even despair. But as we grow in our maturity, we will be able to recover from it quicker and quicker and start praying to God according to His promise sooner and sooner. When we do that, how much God will be honored by our confident trust and how much more tranquility and peace we will enjoy more and more! May the Lord increase our faith and strengthen our trust in Him more and more until it is His greatnes we see, not the size of our troubles!

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