Since God Is For Me

The Bible is filled with people whose lives were marked by difficulty, injustice, and oppression. Jacob, whose life was filled with great evils, cried out to the Lord in his grief, “All these things are against me!” 

But where there is great evil, God brings great grace to those who trust Him.  When Jacob ran for his life, Jesus met him and promised to be with him, keep him, defend him, and bring him safely back to the Promised Land. His sons, who were so wild in their early years, repented, and became loyal to God and to each other. Joseph, who Jacob thought was dead, became the vice-Pharoah of Egypt, saving the entire Mideast from famine.

Through Judah and his lineage, came the Savior of the world, Jesus Christ, bringing redemption – the forgiveness of sins – through His blood, and inviting all who will receive Him to eternal glory. And when you read the last chapter of the Bible, there are 12 gates of pearl, each one memorializing the twelve sons of Jacob, each leading into the New Temple, to the Throne of Christ (Rev. 21:12).

Like Jacob, we look around at how evil has infected every area of our world and say… “All these things are against me.” But this is not the end. Faith triumphs in this truth: “If God is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31).

On his deathbed, Jacob testified that God had “redeemed me from ALL evil.” Because of the Cross of Christ, we can rejoice that the glories to come are not worthy to be compared to the sufferings of this life. Maranatha! Jesus is near.

(Devotional by Lisa Cataford)