Crying Out of the Depths (Part 1)

O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, O Lord, who said to me, “Go back to your country and your relatives,  and I will make you prosper,” I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness You have shown Your servant. I had only my  staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two  groups. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I  am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. But You have said, “I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea,  which cannot be counted.”
—Genesis 32:9–12

We pray best when we have nothing going for us. “The best disposition for praying,” said Augustine, “is that of being  desolate, forsaken, stripped of everything.”

Consider Jacob. When messengers announced Esau’s advance,  Jacob, filled with fear, began to pray. He began and ended his  plea by reminding God of His promise: “You said!” (Genesis 32:9, 12).

“Ah, He had God in his power then,” F. B. Meyer reflects. “God puts Himself within our reach in His promises . . . He cannot say nay—He must do as He has said.”

God had promised to be with Jacob and bring him back to the land (Genesis 28:13–15). Thus Jacob could appeal to God’s word. The Lord had promised to protect him, and He is the only One who cannot lie (Titus 1:2 NASB).

God is true. What He has promised He will do. We can rest in the integrity of His word. But we must be sure that we stand on God’s actual word when we claim a promise, for then and only then do we have the assurance that God will come through. He is bound to do only what He has said He will do—nothing more or less.

Taken from Seeing God, © 2006 by David Roper. Used by permission of Discovery House Publishers, Box 3566, Grand Rapids MI 49501. All rights reserved.