“So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak “(Genesis 32:24).
One of my personal practices is to record some notes from my daily quiet times, if I feel there is something worth writing down. (For me, a “quiet time” consists of Bible reading, meditation and prayer.) At the beginning of every year I look back over my quiet time notes from the previous year and catalogue them in a separate file. From time to time I’ll reproduce some of those thoughts here and hope they might be helpful in some way to whoever reads them.
When doing this last week I came across an entry from January 30, 2010 which began with the above verse from Genesis 32. It comes from the famous story where Jacob, with all his family and servants, is on his way to meet with his estranged brother Esau. Jacob is petrified of the encounter because he’s convinced Esau still wants to kill him for a wrong done to him many years ago. But he knows he has to go through with the meeting. He sends all of his family and helpers and livestock across the river to a safe place and then spends the night to prepare himself for possibly the last day of his life.
Many people would rather do just about anything than be alone. Perhaps one of the most difficult spiritual disciplines for people to practice today is the discipline of solitude. And by solitude I mean no external stimuli – no cell phones, IPods, I Pads, Notepads, Blackberrys, .... just you and the silence. What I first noticed was that God only came to meet Jacob after everyone else had gone ahead and he was “left alone.” God wants our undivided attention. Not until we are alone does He slip quietly out of the shadows and come to us – to wrestle, to speak, to ask questions and to bless. Jacob soon discovered that the “man” who wrestled with him was no ordinary man. Through this encounter he was being prepared to meet with his brother the next day. The outcome was quite amazing.
There is a desperate need for more of us to be alone in the dark with God – a time for God to come.
Warning: I’m not talking about scheduling God into our busy lives, as in – “God, I’ve got a little time between 9 and 9:30 tomorrow morning, so I’ll be turning off all my devices and expecting You to show up. After that I’ll be busy again.” The arrogance of such thinking – sitting imperiously on our thrones, making room in our busy schedules, creating a little opening in our day to fit poor God in. (I hope He appreciates it!)....telling the Creator and Majesty of the universe what to do and when to do it. Instead, how happy we should be if we knocked on God’s door all night and He opened it just a crack, for a mere minute, that we might glimpse a little of His glory!
We need to learn to “wait on the Lord,” and to clear at least some of the busyness and activity out of our lives in order to meet with Him, to treasure above all things whatever He might give or show us of Himself. Remember Paul‘s prayer for the average first century Christians – “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe” (Ephesians 1:17-19). How do we think the first generation of Christians so impacted their world? They knew their God.
“My soul waits in silence for God only...” (Psalm 62:1). “They that wait on the LORD will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles...” (Isaiah 40:31). “Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at my doorposts...” (Proverbs 8:34-35). And last but not least – “Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed” (Mark 1:35).
Thanks for listening. In the next entry I will address the common problem of - “I tried it and nothing happened.”
John
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