Genesis chapter 32

When Jacob last saw Esau, he had just robbed Esau of his father's blessing and was basically running to Laban to get away from Esau and save his skin. Now, many years later, he returns and is very worried about how Esau will treat him. So the first thing he does is pray to God, which kind of makes my cynicism in the last chapter look misplaced!

It is such an example as well, because how often do problems arise in life and we try and sort them out ourselves, without even mentioning them to God, let alone praying about them? And yes, I know God knows about them anyway since He knows everything about us, but that isn't the point. In any relationship there has to be two way conversation for the relationship to work. You can't be married to someone and not talk to them, you can't have children and not speak to them (imagine the chaos if you did that and let the children do what they wanted, when they wanted!!!) and in the same way, you can't have a relationship with God and not pray.

Prayer should be the first thing we do in an situation, not the one thing we do only after we have exhausted all other options and not come up with a solution ourselves. I have a habit of doing this, trying to sort everything out myself, getting all stressed and anxious, feeling like the weight of the world is on my shoulders and that no one else cares or is bothered, when all I have to do is pray, take it to God and ask Him to handle it. I have learnt that God can be trusted, no matter what the problem. I now He always answers my prayers, maybe not the way I want, maybe not at the time I want, but each one is answered, and when I have doubts, I just remember the 1,000 year rule (a 1,000 years is as a day to the Lord and a day is as a 1,000 years therefore if 1 day = 1,000 years, 14.4 minutes = 10 years!) and try to have patience.

Here, Jacob is reminding God is his promises, of how He said that Jacob would have descendants as numerous as the sand, because after all, if Esau killed Jacob, then Jacob would have no more children so would potentially never be the father of many descendants.