- What a fellowship, what a joy
divine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
What a blessedness, what a peace is mine,
Leaning on the everlasting arms. - Refrain:
Leaning, leaning, safe and secure from all alarms;
Leaning, leaning, leaning on the everlasting arms. - Oh, how sweet to walk in this pilgrim
way,
Leaning on the everlasting arms;
Oh, how bright the path grows from day to day,
Leaning on the everlasting arms. - What
have I to dread, what have I to fear,
Leaning on the everlasting arms?
I have blessed peace with my Lord so near,
Leaning on the everlasting arms.
READ: The devotional for today comes from Genesis
32. Here you will find the story of
Jacob wrestling with "a man" on the brook and him refusing to let go
until God blesses him.
THINK: In this section, the reader is challenged to
picture the scene. Specifically, the
book says:
(1) Picture
yourself in this passage. Are you
Jacob? Are you an invisible bystander
watching it all?
(2) What moment in
this passage resonates with you most?
*wanting desperately to be blessed
*wanting desperately to know more of God
*other
I don't know about
you, but every time I read this, I am Jacob.
I feel like I have been begging God my entire life to bless me. But also, I want to see the face of God,
Peniel. Or, as it is in Hebrew,
P'nay-El, which is literally, the face of God.
"P'nay" means face today, still. And "El" is still short for
Elohim, or God.
PRAY: Without even realizing it, what I have been
doing, in my spare time, while I've been here at class, is searching
desperately for God to bless me and to show me His Face. Perhaps, more than either of those things
though, I want to believe that I can be seen by God and not have to worry if
I'm good enough, to not have to worry about whether or not He will actually
see Christ when He looks at me, even though I have taken all the necessary
precautions to make it so. I want to be
able to read the passages in the Bible that tell me He rejoices over me with
singing and actually believe them for myself, and not just for everyone else.
LIVE: I will share this part with you verbatim:
"Sit quietly before God, imagining the
night sounds and the smell of running water.
Try to be comfortable with God in this wild atmosphere. What does it feel like to trust and to
reveal the desires of your heart? Be
honest if you feel uncomfortable. What
would you like it to feel like? Rest in
that."
What does it feel
like? Unsteady. Uneasy.
Like maybe it doesn't matter what the deepest desires of my heart are
if He's going to do what He wants to anyway.
But, what I would like it to feel like is that He was listening. One song from my grandfather's church hymnal
sums up what I would like it to feel like.
It is called "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms." If you've never heard it, here are the
lyrics:
If you'd like to
listen to it, you can click on the link below to get to a YouTube video of
Alan Jackson singing it.
I will leave you
with that for now, and with this final thought.
I am trying to make
Proverbs 3:5-6 my prayer on days when I feel like I can't see the path God has
laid out for me, or when I find that I have been struggling to make sense of
this world. I hope it will give you some
comfort too.
Trust in the Lord
with all your heart,
And lean not on
your own understanding;
In all your ways
acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct
your paths.
~Proverbs 3:5-6 (New King James Version)
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