When I fear I will pray

Genesis 32:9-12 ( ESV )

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⁹And Jacob said, “O God of my father Abraham and God of my father Isaac, O Lord who said to me, ‘Return to your country and to your kindred, that I may do you good,’ 

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¹⁰I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant, for with only my staff I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two camps. 

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¹¹Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children. 

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¹²But you said, ‘I will surely do you good, and make your offspring as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude.’”

OBSERVATIONS:

1.     In his prayer he reflected about how God had kept his promises to Abraham and Isaac and how he wanted him to come back to the land of promise. While we pray once again let us remember that if God has allowed us to be in our present circumstances he will guide us through them with his kindness.

2.     It is always good in our prayer lives to remember the mercies and faithfulness of God that he has shown us. We should also remember that is because of his strength alone that we can go through any of our trials. Remember to pray for His strength to carry us through. Ephesians 6:10 Finally my brethren be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Jacob now relies upon this God and His strength as he knows that God would do him good and make his offspring as the sand of the sea.

3.     Like Jacob when we become fearful let us not be ashamed to pray that God will deliver us. In the ESV version the word deliver is used around 157 times. Jacob uses that word for the first time here in this verse. 

     

       Here are some more examples of prayers for deliverance.

a.       David when confronting Goliath in I Sam 17:37 tells how the Lord delivered him from the paw of a lion and paw of the bear and just two verses later tells Goliath how he will be delivered into his hand.

b.      Israel when it would fear the Lord was promised that God would deliver them in II Kings 17:39 Yet in verse 40 we are told that they did not.

c.       Job would pray deliver me from my adversaries hand in Job 6:23

d.      David Ps. 7:1 “In you do I take refuge, save me from all my pursuers and deliver me. Ps. 39:8 Deliver me from all my transgressions.

e.      Deliverance from our sins. Ps. 79:9

f.        Matthew 6:13 The Disciple’s prayer Deliver us from evil.

Jacob will now spend one of his most sleepless nights as he will now wrestle with God all night long in prayer. Genesis 32:24-31.

Prayer Heritage: Isaac

Genesis 25:20-21 ( ESV )

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²⁰and Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to be his wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Aramean of Paddan-aram, the sister of Laban the Aramean. 

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²¹And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived. 

1.     Most scholars believe that Rebekah and Isaac were married for 20 years and like his father before him they did not have any children for a long time. You can’t tell me that he did not think about his father during these days. He had to have heard the stories over and over again. He, the promised one had even been offered up as a sacrifice by his own father. His father believed so much in the promise that if he would have killed Isaac he believed God would raise him back from the dead. Now he was going through what his father had gone through before him. What did he do? He prayed that Rebekah would be able to conceive.

 One of the things that will encourage others to pray is when we tell our stories of answered prayer by our Father.  As parents, grandparents or relatives do we pass this heritage on to our children? Secondly, do they see us in prayer?  Even as an unsaved lad I remember my great grandparents praying in the morning as well as at bedtime for us as a family. I would see them bend their knees for us and for those around them. It was a legacy that I will never forget. Do our loved ones see that legacy lived out in us?

2.     One of the most practical things that we can also do in our prayer lives is to pray for those who desire to have children and are unable to. When we have friends or loved ones who tell us of this deep sorrow. We should take time to humbly bow before our Lord for them.

I

Here are others who prayed to their God for children.

a.       Abraham Genesis 15:2

b.      Rachel Genesis 30:1, 22

c.       Hannah I Samuel 1:10-11 and 2:1-10

d.      Zachariah’s prayer Luke 1:5-7, 13-17

3.     Don’t miss it though Isaac had prayed for an heir. God would answer even beyond that in that he would be given not just one son, but two. In our prayer lives sometimes God will even do abundantly even more then what we could even think of.

ELIEZER: A SERVANT'S PRAYER

Genesis 24:12-14 ( ESV )

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¹²And he said, “O Lord, God of my master Abraham, please grant me success today and show steadfast love to my master Abraham. 

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¹³Behold, I am standing by the spring of water, and the daughters of the men of the city are coming out to draw water. 

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¹⁴Let the young woman to whom I shall say, ‘Please let down your jar that I may drink,’ and who shall say, ‘Drink, and I will water your camels’—let her be the one whom you have appointed for your servant Isaac. By this^£ I shall know that you have shown steadfast love to my master.”

OBSERVATIONS:

1.     Eliezer was Abraham’s head servant and oversaw Abraham’s household. He was trusted so much that Abraham made him promise that he would search for a wife for his son Isaac. The longest chapter in the entire book of Genesis deals with this search and how God answered a servant’s prayer.

2.     In verse 12 he starts his prayer as an act of intercession for Abraham that God would grant him success and show his steadfast love to Abraham by allowing him to find a mate for Isaac. We should have a servant’s heart as well and take time out of our “busy” schedules to intercede for those around us. We need to put ourselves in their place.

3.     One of the great things about this prayer is that he prayed very specifically. Note the detail of how he prays. The amazing part is how God answers this prayer in verses 15-21 by what Rebekah does. Every part of it is fulfilled and Rebekah would soon become Isaac’s wife.  Often we pray shallow and so very broadly. Our God is a miracle working God who loves us to be more specific in our prayer lives concerning our needs and the needs of others. It is not enough to pray for the souls of all men but that we will plead and cry out for them.  Learn to be specific in our prayer lives.

Abraham the Friend of God

ABRAHAM

Genesis 15:1-6 ( ESV )

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¹After these things the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great.” 

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²But Abram said, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue^£ childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” 

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³And Abram said, “Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir.” 

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⁴And behold, the word of the Lord came to him: “This man shall not be your heir; your very own son^£ shall be your heir.” 

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⁵And he brought him outside and said, “Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 

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⁶And he believed the Lord, and he counted it to him as righteousness.

Observations:

1-The Lord knows the heart of Abraham and He knows his fears. You and I must understand this fact about ourselves when we come into His presence. Even before we speak our Father knows our needs, desires and fears. He is not displeased with us but wants us to share these things with Him. This was an intimate relationship that Abraham had with God. We know this to be true as we read in James 2:23 and Is. 41:8 that Abraham is called a friend of God. One of the reasons why we struggle with prayer is that we forget that we are simply building a relationship with our creator. He wants to hear our voice. He wants us to draw close to Him.

 Note how the Father talks to Abraham, He wants to remind him how He is his shield. The one who will guard him. So when we walk through the shadow of death we to can come to him with our fears and He tells us how that He will watch over us and that our reward will be great.

2-3Abraham like us forgets that He has promised to take care of us. He can only see that he is still childless. What reward? My greatest desire has still not come true.  If you will notice he even goes as far as blaming God for not giving him an heir.

When we come to the Lord we need to be honest with Him about how we feel. We must come to Him with the burdens of our hearts and even our disbelief. Often we forget the cry of the father who said, “I believe, help my unbelief.”  It is during these times that we can draw closer to Him. When we forget His promises towards us that is when it is time to pray. Why? Because often just like Abraham we are reminded by God how He will keep them.

4-5-I believe that God delights in building up our heart when we pray. Abraham was reminded that he has a prayer keeping God. A God that will keep every one of His promises. The end result of this conversation and prayer with God is that in verse 6 We are told that Abraham believed in God and He counted it to him as righteousness.

Next we will see the heart of Abraham as he intercedes for the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18:22-33.