Two Hearts in the Hands of God

Jacob said, No, please, if now I have found favor in your sight, then take my present from my hand, for I see your face as one sees the face of God, and you have received me favorably. Genesis 33:10 (New American Standard Bible)

Jacob’s reunion with his brother, Esau, is the Old Testament equivalent of the New Testament story of the Prodigal son. Unexpected favor. Unexpected acceptance. Unexpected change. Astounding picture of the heart of God! It follows a time of Jacob wrestling with his own fears, perceptions, and limited knowledge. After 20 years of separation from his family, Jacob feared meeting up with his brother again and understandably so. He had not left him on the best of terms. Hatred and a desire to see him dead were Esau’s attitudes. Yet, the reception Jacob got was far from what he hoped for or even dared to dream. He expected the worst but Esau “ran to meet him, and embraced him and fell on his neck and kissed him, and they wept.” Apparently, in the midst of Jacob’s thoughts he never entertained the thought that God was working on Esau as much as He had been working on him.

Do you have an Esau in your life? Someone you fear coming face to face with because of the way things were the last time you saw them? You live with a certainty that all has been lost and remains irreplaceable and irreparable. You can’t imagine a favorable reception like the one described between these two brothers. It is beyond your realm of thinking.

If so, I want to encourage you to do what God is leading me to do with my Esau person, and that is to believe Him for change. Believe that all the while He has been working on me, He has been working on the other person. As I have been changing, she has been changing. Believe that God is right now continuing to make all things new. Believe that if there ever is a reunion in this life, preparation is being made for that reunion. It is a looking forward with anticipation rather than holding on to the past. It is basing my thoughts and feelings on what God is doing rather than on how things were at one time.

I don’t want to spend another day with fear, dread, or hopelessness. Instead, I want to rejoice in the fact that God’s ways are higher than my own and His thoughts are too. Jacob’s reunion experience has become my new perspective as I enter a time of trusting God to do what He has been doing all along in both our lives. His ways are the epitome of multi-tasking!

Father, my thoughts are lining up with You today. What a joy to know that NONE of us are who we use to be. I needed this assurance and choose to embrace it. Amen.

God Will Make a Way - Janet Paschal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VAz7K72a8ks

Getting into God's Word and letting God's Word get into me one truth at a time.