Daily devotional · July 13
God Was Here All Along
“Meanwhile Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Haran. On reaching a certain place, he spent the night there because the sun had set. And taking one of the stones from that place, he put it under his head and lay down to sleep. And Jacob had a dream about a ladder that rested on the earth with its top reaching up to heaven, and God’s angels were going up and down the ladder. And there at the top the LORD was standing and saying, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you now lie. Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and east and north and south. All the families of the earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. Look, I am with you, and I will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. For I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.” When Jacob woke up, he said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I was unaware of it.””
Jacob was running away from a family he had deceived, sleeping on the ground with a stone for a pillow. He was hardly in a spiritual condition to meet God. Yet in his dream he sees a stairway connecting earth and heaven, and the Lord promises to be with him and bring him back. When he wakes, he says something worth remembering: surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it. Many of us have had a rough place that later turned out to be holy ground. God did not wait for Jacob to clean up first. Today, look back over the last week and ask where God may have been present while you were too busy or discouraged to notice. Write down two or three moments. Thank him for them, and ask for eyes to notice him in the ordinary places ahead.
Prayer
Lord, you are in this place. Open my eyes to see you where I least expect you.