Day 9

Today, Jacob steals both Esau's Birthright and his blessing. After this, Esau threatens to kill Jacob, so he is forced to flee to another city.

I find it interesting that on several occasions now, the main characters have had to flee or move to a new location. In each of these instances, they have been greatly blessed.

Abraham moved around a lot as was seen in earlier readings. He moved with Lot and took the land Lot didn't want near the forests. He was blessed with a full life, a son of his own, and many posessions given to him by Abimelech. Later, there was a famine which forced Isaac to move to Gerar with the Philistines. In chapter 26 verse 12, it states, "And Isaac sowed in the land and reaped in the same year a hundredfold. The Lord blessed him..."

Now we see Jacob with his brother's birthright and his father's blessing and then moves to a different city. Later, he is blessed.

My wife and I are originally from Michigan, but we moved here 2 years ago. That has been a tough move. Quite often, we were hanging on Christ's promises that He will never leave us, and we can do all things through Him. As newlyweds too, we needed those promises; to hold on to them as constants when everything else around us had changed. We both took a great step of faith moving to Texas. It has been tough, but we have been blessed here. We have great friends, a healthy baby, and we are working on moving into a house in the near future. But I do believe that God takes care of those that step out for Him. We knew God was going to take care of us. We also knew He was telling us that we could not make it in Michigan with the way the job market was.

If we didn't take that step of faith and move down here, we would not have met some great people that have been a true blessing to us. People who made this place home and showed us the love of Christ that I have never seen. I cannot imagine not having these people in my life. Those from our young married's class at Irving Bible Church, the church God led us to. He knew what we needed in order to cope with what was thrown at us.

Looking back, I am thankful we took the leap of faith that led us down here. However, I am also looking forward to what is ahead for us. I know God will bless us even more than He already has. I am finding out both through the move and already through this study is that if one commits to God, God commits to that person. I can tell you first hand. I can honestly say God is with me and is taking care of me in every way and I look forward in anticipation to what is in store for me.