Revisiting Bethel

“God said to Jacob, ‘Get up! Go to Bethel and settle there. Build an altar there to the God who appeared to you when you fled from your brother Esau’... ‘We must get up and go. I will build an altar there to the God who answered me in my day of distress. He has been with me everywhere I have gone.’” Ge 35:1-3

The message continues from yesterday…we must consider where we have been before God shows us where He is taking us. Jacob, his wives and their children had settled in a land of foreign gods after leaving Laban’s land. They compromised their devotion to God by settling in a region that wasn’t God’s will for them. He intended for them to pass through the land, not intermingling and setting up life with its inhabitants. Finally, God said that enough was enough instructing them to gather their things and return to the original place where God had first revealed Himself to Jacob. He wanted Jacob to revisit the place where God’s mercy met his despair. It would only be once they returned to that holy spot that God would show Jacob his future inheritance.

Sometimes the very thing God wants us to do is the very thing we resist the most. Who on earth wants to revisit a time when our deepest despair was our companion? I have a place that immediately comes to mind where God ministered to me in one of my most heart wrenching times. It was my Bethel and I think about it every time I pass by that place. I don’t think on it for long because it still symbolizes a time when I felt most alone…when I could count on my fingers those who surrounded me in love and support. God showed me amazing things that have liberated me from lifelong attitudes that no longer benefit me. He began reshaping my heart and rebuilding my focus. He revealed Himself daily to me as I traveled through that season. I am in a great place now but realize the importance of ‘recalling my Bethel’ to fully grasp how far God has brought me. He is still showing me wonderful things for my future while continuing to work on my heart. Like Jacob, God couldn’t show me the beautiful things He had for me until my heart had been reworked. Like Jacob, God has been with me everywhere I have gone since that day of deep despair.

Where does this leave us? It leaves us with the truth that sometimes the answer to our prayers is ‘down the road’ once we’ve allowed God to transform our heart. It leaves us with the choice to believe in God’s best if we keep moving instead of settling in the land of bitterness…despair…discontent. Once we ‘get up and get going’ it can propel the power of God to move mountains, heal hearts, and resurrect dead dreams. I am sure all of you have your Bethels where your greatest despair met God's unwavering love and faithfulness. Those are the things worth recalling. Those are the times of God's best intersecting our worst. Keep your eyes on God because you have no idea the beautiful plans He has for your life. So get up...get going...and build those altars!