Are you going through a season of doubt and confusion? Have you been wondering whether all the promises that God has given you will ever come to pass, in your lifetime? If that is you and if your answer is yes, God is assuring you today, that He will make sure that His promises will come true in your life.

Our God is the God of His Word. He excels in fulfilling His promises. He never fails to fulfil His promises. He is faithful!! He is the Faithful One so unchanging!

God knows beforehand every path that we will go through and even all the situations we will face in life. Therefore, He has ordained people who would favor us, even amidst our difficult and confusing situations. The only thing that He expects in us, is for us to trust and rely on Him completely and not to put our trust in men. When we keep Him first and depend on Him, at the right time, He will bring us favor through people or through situations, so that what He has promised to us would come to pass in our life.

“For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God.” (2 Corinthians 1:20)

Now, let us meditate on the faithfulness of God through the early life of Jacob – from the time when God gave him the promise to be with him, until he came back to Canaan. As we ponder on this, we will also learn how God molded him during the tough phases in his life to seek God personally and to have intimate fellowship with Him.

The Promise at the right time

God has chosen Jacob to be the successor of Isaac, his father. Even before the birth of Jacob, when Rebecca, his mother, asked God about her children, The LORD said to her, “… the older will serve the younger." (Genesis 25:23). Jacob, being the younger one, had lesser chances of being blessed. But at the right time, things worked out in such a way that Jacob received all the blessings from his father. This made his brother Esau upset and from that moment on, he was seeking to kill Jacob (Genesis 27:41).

The Scripture says in Genesis 25:27 that, Jacob was calm and dwelt in the tent with his parents, which means he is not used to doing things on his own. He was still dependent on his parents for his daily chores. He hardly took any decision on his own. But now, he was left all alone not knowing what to do. The situation around him was too bad that he had to flee for his life.

In the passage in Genesis 28, Jacob was on his way to Laban’s (his uncle) house, basically seeking refuge there, so that he could spare his life from his angry brother Esau. Even though he was obedient to his parents and journeyed towards his uncle’s house (Genesis 28:7), there would have been a million questions flashing on his mind. He did not know how he would reach his uncle’s place. There was no GPS facility to show him the route. He never knew whether he would find favor in his uncle’s eyes or not. He did not know if he would find food for himself and if he would ever come back home and live in peace.

All the promises that God had given to Abraham and Isaac, which his parents discussed at home, would have flashed through his mind. He would have questioned in his mind if those promises would ever be fulfilled. The words of his mother telling him, “You will become great; a nation will arise from you; and your brother will serve you. God’s favor will rest on you, and so on...” would have been still ringing in his ears. Questions about these promises and fear about the future would have flashed in his mind like never before.

After continuing his journey for a while, at one point he did not even know the place where he was and as it was already night-time, he had to sleep. At this frustrating and confusing moment, our loving God comes into the picture, revealing himself in a profound manner!! What an awesome God we serve!! Jacob had a divine encounter that night!! The Lord opened the heavens for him. The Lord spoke to him clearly about the wonderful plans that He had for Jacob. Amazingly, God did not stop with just confirming the promises that He gave through Abraham and Isaac, He went on further and said, until I fulfil all that I’ve promised I will be with you. Such an encouraging Word for that time!!

Jacob was in such a desperate and lonely situation, where He needed the assurance of God telling him, “You are not alone my dear son; you are on the right track; I will never leave you all alone!!” God knew his situation and spoke to him accordingly and the apt word at that time strengthened Jacob. He also had the assurance that God assigned heavenly angels for him.

After this encounter, the Bible records in Genesis 29:1 (AMPC), “Then Jacob went [briskly and cheerfully] on his way”. This encounter with the living God and the assurance that God will be with him until all the promises come to pass encouraged Jacob so much. It gave him so much confidence to move forward in life.

Until the promise manifests

Jacob continued his journey. The moment the promise was given to him, Jacob possibly thought that he would just have to go to his uncle’s house, find his bride, stay there for a few days and go back home to his parents. But God’s plan was to strengthen Jacob’s relationship with Him and at the same time, make all the crooked paths straight for him to come back home. God wanted to create a peaceful situation for Jacob, when he returned home. God had to work within Esau and stabilize him, so that he would stop pursuing Jacob to kill him: basically, God wanted to ensure Jacob had a peaceful and protected life.

Many a times, when God gives us a promise, it is just a high-level idea about what He is going to do in our life. We are encouraged and happy when we hear the assurance that God gives us. Oftentimes, he would not give us the detailed plan of all the troubles and situations we will have to overcome, before the promise manifests. For, if He reveals all that we will have to go through, we will opt not to choose His path. He always puts a bigger promise into our life that which we cannot achieve in our own strength and ability. He does not want us to give up and that is the reason He reveals only the high-level plans for our life, through an initial promise. However, moving forward, as we get closer to Him through fellowship, He starts revealing even the very small steps that we need to take each day.

This is what happened to Jacob. When he left his home, there was no mention of him seeking God fervently; he just watched his father and mother having fellowship with God. Now, God wanted Jacob to fellowship with Him, so, He pulled him out of his comfort zone. Situations arose in such a way that Jacob was left all to make decisions on his own. At the right moment, God revealed Himself to Jacob and created a hunger in him to pursue God.

From then on when we read about the life of Jacob, we can clearly see God guiding him in every aspect of his life. Jacob had to go through several years of hard work at his uncle’s place. But during this season, his relationship with God was strengthened. He sought the Lord while taking care of His uncle’s flocks, and God gave him divine ideas and prospered him (Genesis 31:10). When it was time for him to go back home, God directed him (Genesis 31:3), and situations turned out in favor of him. His own uncle saw that there was something special about Jacob – for God rebuked Labon, telling him not to harm Jacob (Genesis 31:24). God made sure that his brother Esau had cooled down and embraced him, when he met Jacob on his way home (Genesis 33:4).

The manifestation of the promise

And, as God promised, Jacob went back to Canaan with much treasure – he went from there with just one staff but came back with two camps (Genesis 32:10). Above all, when he was back home, he had totally changed in the most important aspect of life – he started having habitual fellowship with God and heard God’s voice clearly. God spoke to him concerning many aspects of life, mostly through dreams.

Often, when we go through rough paths in life, we tend to doubt the promises of God – that’s because in the natural, everything looks negative and in our human-self, we are unable to find a way out. But God knows the beginning, and up until the end. He often uses such seasons, where we are pushed out of our comfort zone, to draw us closer to Him. Even the difficult paths that we go through will turn out to be a place of cleansing, where we forget everything else, and move forward depending, trusting and seeking God wholeheartedly. The best way to come out of the pains that we go through in such difficult seasons in life, is to draw closer to the Holy Spirit, who dwells in us and learn to hear His voice much clearly.

Today, even if you are in a confused and frustrated situation, God is assuring you that He will never leave you nor forsake you. No matter what situations you face, the promises of God over your life will definitely come to pass! You might have come across situations where God’s promises were lively to you, when you sought the Lord for something regarding your life. However, as days go by and when it takes time for the promise to be fulfilled, you would have lost hope. Maybe today you are in a situation, where you are wondering if the promises that God gave you would ever come to pass in your life. Do not worry nor let your heart be troubled my dear friend. “He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion” (Philippians 1:6).

Even if the whole world stands against you and you are stuck in a terrible situation, there is ONE person you can rely on always – yes, the Creator of the heavens and the Earth. He will never fail in His promises (Matthew 24:35).

If you will not give up and keep on pursuing closeness with the Holy Spirit, when the promise manifests; you will be overwhelmed not just to see and enjoy the fulfilment of the promise, but you will be totally transformed from inside out. The Holy Spirit would do an amazing work in you, to mould you into a precious vessel useful for higher purposes (2 Timothy 2:21).

God bless you!!