16/07/2011 - The God of Jacob

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O LORD, God of hosts, hear my prayer; give ear O God of Jacob!

Psalm 84:8

In the whole spiritual world there is only One Being who has absolute power: the one and only God, the Creator of all things. In fact, apart from Him there has never been and there will never be another God. Therefore, all prayers we say must be directed to Him; after all, those who have Him as their Lord also have Him by their side and as a result they never lose any battle because the Most High is the One who commands all the heavenly armies.
The Lord possesses unlimited power and His merciful intention is accomplished by many hosts which are made up of angels whose mission is healing, deliverance, performing wonders and answering to a myriad of different requests made to God. That is the reason why our outcries must be directed to the Almighty God because He is the One who determines the kind of work His agents must do.
The Most High, the One who created all things and keeps them by His power (Hebrews 1:3b), has the whole Universe to take care of but that is not a problem because He is ubiquitous – which means being everywhere at the same time – so He is capable of giving due attention to all those who seek Him.
The Lord says He is High and Lofty (Isaiah 57:15a), but He also says that He dwells with those whose hearts are contrite. By the way, Bible tells us that Jesus put Himself at the disposal of those who are in need and He invited all those who are weary and heavy laden to draw close to Him so they can find rest (Matthew 11:28). That is what the psalmist did as he prayed; he asked God to listen to his prayer and to pay heed to his cry (Psalm 61:1).
Another attitude taken by the psalmist was to refer to the Most High as “the God of Jacob”. The Lord was called this way for having heard Jacob when his brother, Esau, went up against him with a gang of four hundred men (Genesis 32:6) because he had sworn that one day he would murder Jacob. Well, Esau was able to defeat Jacob and thus fulfil his evil promise. However, upon God’s command, the patriarch of the Hebrews went back to his homeland followed only by his children and some servants. Then, after Jacob spent the night in prayer (verses 9 through 12) the Lord revealed Himself to him in the form of an angel with whom that patriarch wrestled until prevailing (verses 24 through 28).
The Almighty One had promised Jacob that He would keep him at every step of the way and that patriarch, in his turn, did believe in it and claimed that promise. So, because Jacob prevailed in the wrestling, God transformed Esau’s heart (Genesis 33:4). My brother, you must never forget that the Most High always fulfils His promises! Therefore, if you still have not experienced the goodness and the power of God at giving solutions to the needs of His people, take the chance to turn to Him in prayer right now and, with faith, tell him about your needs believing that He will answer you.
In Christ, with love,
R. R. Soares