Daily devotional · May 26
God Was in This Place
“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 wronged, sleeping outdoors with a stone for a pillow, when he dreamed of a stairway between earth and heaven. God stood above it and repeated the promises made to Abraham: land, descendants, blessing, and the assurance that he would be with him wherever he went. Jacob woke amazed and admitted that the Lord was in this place, and he had not known it. Notice that God met him in the middle of his failure, on the run, with no altar or temple in sight. We may think God is only found in spiritual high points, but he often shows up in the desert of a bad season. Today, pause in an unlikely place, in traffic, in a waiting room, at the sink, and tell God you are aware he is here.
Prayer
Lord, open my eyes to see you in unlikely places. Meet me where I am, even when I have failed.