God With Me! Genesis 28:15

Behold I am with you and I will keep you in all places where ever you go. I will bring you again to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.



Jacob was one of the patriarchs of the Old Testament. He was Isaac’s son. He was Abraham’s grandson. You would think that Jacob would be a special person with amazing characteristics. However, he was a lot like some of us. He tricked his older brother out of his birthright and then he deceived his aged father by dressing up like his older brother to receive the patriarchal blessing. Jacob lied. He stole and he failed to love his brother like he should have. He was greedy and had a tendency to care about himself. Sounds a lot like a commentary on the 21st Century American doesn’t it?

When Esau found out that his little brother had tricked his father into giving him his blessing, he got angry and sought to take Jacob’s life. His mother and father told him to leave home for his own safety. He did. As he made the journey to his mother’s homeland and family, Jacob laid down to go to sleep and he had a dream. In this dream he saw God and God told him, “I am the Lord God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac; the land upon which you are laying I will give to you and your descendants. Behold I am with you and I will keep you in all places where ever you go. I will bring you again to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you.”

Here is the message of this story. God can take imperfect people and do wonderful things with them. Jacob had made some very poor decisions. His mother played a role in his deception. In fact, it was her idea. However, God is bigger than our faults and our failures. His plans are more important than our plans and our actions. God came to Jacob as he was running for his life and He assured him of His presence in his life. God let Jacob know that He had plans for his life. Even in the darkest hours of his life, Jacob found that God loved him and He had plans and promises for him.

Through prayer you and I can find comfort in God’s love for us as well. We can know that God is with us no matter what. He will keep us in “all places.” We can know that God will be with us in the difficult times but we can also know that God will be with us in the good times as well. Perhaps the biggest mistake we make is failing to go to God through prayer in the good times. The temptation to say, “Good-Bye God” when we turn onto “Easy Street” ought to be the first sigh that we are headed in the wrong direction! God is with us at all times, good and bad and we need to seek to walk with Him on both.

We need to understand and remember that we do not need to take a vacation from God or take a vacation without Him! God needs to be in charge of our lives in the good times as well as the bad. When we let Him take charge in the good times, we might discover that the bad times are not as bad! I like the advice I saw on a bumper sticker some time ago; “If God is your Co-Pilot; Change seats!”

Thank You God for the privilege of prayer!