Genesis 35:1-3

"Then God said to Jacob, 'Go up to Bethel and settle there, and build an altar there to God, who appeared to you when you were fleeing from your brother Esau.' So Jacob said to his household and to all who were with him, 'Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves and change your clothes. Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God, who answered me in the day of my distress and who has been with me wherever I have gone.'"

I love to read the stories about when God speaks and then you see the receiver simply obey Him. Like with Abraham, God says go and he does, uninformed of his destination. Here, God tells Jacob to go and Jacob rounds up his people and instructs them. It is a challenge to me to simply act in obedience, even when I don't know the particulars.

However, in reading this, I was struck by the last line. How different would I be if I could say this with such ease? Has not God answered me in my day of distress? Has not God been with me wherever I have gone? Sure He has. But do I really believe it?

I think I personally am in a place where I am beginning, little by precious little, to see God's hand in my past...but I have a long ways to go, and even then, I will probably never understand it fully. Regardless of if I understand it or not, I need to be able to say with confidence that God has been with me wherever I have gone and that He hears me and responds. Granted, it may not always be in the way I hope for. But if I could honestly say these things and mean them fully, my life, I think, would look drastically different. I think the fight for joy wouldn't be so intense if I could but marvel in the fact that He has never left me. I think the dark steps ahead would be lighted, not with knowledge or clarity, but with a trust that will follow even in the uncertainties of life. I think my heart would be filled to overflowing with love that spills out onto others naturally.

Lord, teach me to see You in all my circumstances
Help me to know that You have never left my side
Abba, I believe, help my unbelief!