BTC Presents: "....but God..." A Weekday Morning Devotional Series Genesis 32: 9-12 Pt 4

Show Notes

Genesis 32: 9-12

Creators & Guests

Host

Chad McBeam

Business Leader, Foster Advocate and Fighter of Human Trafficking, Chad enjoys hosting this podcast channel as a way to spread and highlight the great examples of those who live out their faith daily. He can also be seen on occasion on your TV or Film Screen or be heard narrating one of your books as his love of acting has stuck with him since his childhood.

Writer

Aaron Marcarelli

After getting his under-graduate degree from Cal State University San Bernardino where he played college baseball and received all American honors. he was a graduate assistant baseball coach at both Trevecca Nazarene College in Nashville, Tennessee, and at Whitworth University in Spokane, Washington.  He received his master’s degree in Teaching from Whitworth, with plans to someday be a head baseball coach at a university.  However, God had other plans.  Aaron started teaching English and History and coaching baseball and other sports at the high school level and found out how much he loves high school kids, and he has been doing that for the past 27 years.     Personally, heI has been married to his wife Sharon for 32 years, they have one daughter, Amanda Parrish, who has been married to Austin Parrish for 2 years. Aaron also has two grandsons Travis age 2 ½ and Aden who is 13 months and are blessed to have another on the way due in May. Aaron loves reading, golfing, and spending time with his wife and grandkids.

Designer

Linda Cowen

Linda Cowen of San Antonio Christian School is our gracious and talented art designer for the But God, weekday morning devotional series.

What is ...But God?

A weekday morning devotional series written by Aaron Marcarelli and hosted by Chad McBeam

“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 relatives, and I will prosper you,’ I am unworthy of all the lovingkindness and of all the faithfulness which You have shown to Your servant; for with my staff only I crossed this Jordan, and now I have become two companies. Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, that he will come and attack me and the mothers with the children. For You said, ‘I will surely prosper you and make your descendants as the sand of the sea, which is too great to be numbered.’ ””
Genesis 32:9-12 NASB1995

Today we look at Jacob’s prayer of deliverance where he specifically asks for what he desires in verse 11.
“Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, that he will come and attack me and the mothers with the children.”
There is a positive lesson to be learned from this part of the prayer. Yes, it is whinny, yes Jacob reveals he’s afraid and yes he throws in for good measure, that he’s afraid for his wives Leah and Rachel. Even with all that, we can learn from Jacob. In our prayer life we tend to be general using phrases like “bless them”, “guide them”, “protect them and ”be with them”. All these phrases are good, however they are just general blessings or general supplications they are not specifics.
Jacob prays “Deliver me, I pray, from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau; for I fear him, that he will come and attack me”, you don’t get much more specific than that. Jacob prays for what he needs, and he reminds God why he needs it.
We know what we need, therefore let’s be more specific. When we are praying for others we need to be specific. If you don’t know the specifics ask! Yes, God knows the specifics but all prayer is meant to draw us closer to God and His creation. His greatest creation is us. Therefore, if we get to know others and their specific needs and then pray for their specific needs we grow closer to God. In fact Jacob grows so close to God through these trials, travails and prayers, that by the end of this chapter he wrestled with God. Jacob even says ; “I have seen God face to face, yet my life has been preserved.”
Genesis 32:30 NASB1995
That is the intimacy God desires from us. Therefore, let’s dive deeper into a relationship with Him. Let us use words and phrases like “deliver me from…”, “heal them from…”, and “save us from…”. The only way to know what to pray for is to ask and listen.

So I ask y’all. What are your struggles? What do you need to be delivered from? What are your fears? These prayers are specific to you. Not your family, not your spouse, not your brother, not your sister. All those things are important to pray for. I wanna know You! Please let me pray for your specific needs. So that I can use words like Jacob and be an intercessor for you.
Lord, I thank you for blessing me with the opportunity to share your word with multitudes of people. Help your words to permeate through us. Lord please deliver me from my anger issues, I lay my burdens at the foot of the cross. Lord give me a calm demeanor and renew a right spirit within me. I pray for the needs of my friends and family deliver them also from their afflictions. Help them to share what they need prayer for. So that I too may pray with them and for them. I ask all these things in Jesus Name…Amen.
Blessings and Press In and Press On!