Scripture Reference: Genesis 28:10-22
The House of God Helps People Face the Future
Perhaps the most striking thing about the house of God is that it is a place that helps people face the future with great confidence and courage. The Bible tells us that as Jacob went out, he was afraid. As he first began to get this vision of God, he said, “How awesome is this place!” But after God spoke to him, he saw heaven and the angels; he made a vow in his heart to God; he built an altar, and he said, “This is a sacred place.” Jacob realized that this was the most wonderful thing that ever happened to him. You see, in the house of God we get the courage that we need to face the future with total confidence because we know that the Lord is with us.
God said, “I’ll be your God, Jacob.” Jacob responded, “I’ll be your servant, God.” That’s what worship is all about. We come to the house of God, we commit ourselves to the Lord, we realize that God is with us, and we are able to face the future with confidence.
A story is told of a partially crippled young man who had to wear steel braces on his legs. Often, he and his father would talk about his crippled condition. When the young man reached the age of thirteen, he began to ask his dad, “Why am I partially crippled?” The father, a devout believer, tried to explain it but didn’t have much success.
One day the boy asked again, “Why do I have this crippled condition?” The father laid his hand on the shoulder of his son and said: “God’s going to deal with you through this. I’m going to take you to the great cathedral, and God is going to heal you.”
Following that, the boy often would ask his father, “When are we going to the cathedral so I can be healed?” The response was, “It’s not time yet.”
After a year, the father said: “Son, it’s time. We’re going to the cathedral, and you are going to be healed.”
The boy related, “I was so excited I could hardly stand it. My father and I went to the great cathedral. We were the only ones there. We went to the back of the church, got down on our knees, and my father said, ‘Now, Son, pray. God is going to heal you.’ ”
The boy said, “My father laid his arm around me and prayed. I could feel the power of God.” As the father prayed, the boy said, “I knew that I was healed. After a long while in prayer, my father and I got up and walked out of the cathedral together. After we had gone almost two blocks on the way home I realized I still had those braces on my legs. I hadn’t been physically healed.” But the boy said, “All of the sudden I realized that I really had been healed because in that cathedral God had taken the braces off my mind, and that’s where they were doing me damage, not the ones on my legs. From that day forth, I knew that I had been healed and freed, though I still had the braces.”
That’s what the church does for us. Sometimes God does heal us physically, even in this day and age, but often times He takes the braces off our minds with the freedom of the faith that can trust in Him wholly. That is what happened to Jacob. He was never the same after his experience. Jacob caught a view of the future, and he could face it with confidence. He said, “Surely the Lord is in this place.” In verse 13, the Word says that the Lord God stood above the place to watch over Jacob. That’s what happens when we come to the house of God, when we enter into His presence. We get the strength in our hearts to face the future with courage and confidence, in faith, trusting in Him wholly no matter the circumstances around us. What a joy to be able to say “I was glad when they said to me, ‘Let us go into the house of the LORD’” (Psalm 122:1).
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD 
You must be logged in to post a comment.