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Emergency Rooms

Emergency Rooms

Genesis 32:10b & 11

“For with only my staff I crossed this Jordan. … Please deliver me from the hand of my brother, from the hand of Esau, for I fear him, that he may come and attack me, the mothers with the children.”

Times of distress have a unique way of drawing us back to God, don’t they? C.S. Lewis conveyed this well when he summed up his experience of fighting in World War 1 by saying, “There are no atheists in the foxholes,” and I have no doubt that the sound of bombs bursting and shrapnel flying over my head would turn me back to God. But so do flat tires and bank debt. So do fevers and flus. In fact, my wife and I were in the ER all night last night with our pitifully sick son Micah, getting him tested for meningitis, and, ashamedly, I’ve done more fervent praying in the last twelve hours than I have all month. So picture Jacob here, friend. Five minutes ago, his portfolio was full of goats and rams and camels and donkeys and servants galore. But now, for the first time in twenty years, he’s been whittled down to a worn-out staff and a desperate prayer. Which is the best place he could be!

Remember, friend: you’ll need God’s help in everything you do today. And you’ll never deserve it.