Jacob was lead into a very difficult situation and it is not over yet. Jacob is a man with four wives and at least twelve children. There is infighting in the family. His uncle/father-in-law has cheated him over and over again. He has no possessions of his own and yet he knows that he must return to Canaan. What a difficult situation Jacob has found himself in. Many of you can probably identify with this man. It seems that everything is against you. Life is complicated and messy. Your relationships are a train wreck. Your job is a burden. Your health is a question mark. But yet, you have heard the promises of God. Your promises. How do your life and these promises line up? How is this all going to turn out? Like Jacob, we do not have the answers. God has not given them to us. He has not given us how everything will work out for our good. What we are to do is to place our trust in God. This is called faith. It is not blind faith because we have the story of Jacob before us. It is a faith based on historic precedent and on the word of the one who cannot lie. Not everyone is guaranteed to have everything work out for their good, only those who love God. So the question is, do you love God? Is he your greatest love or does he take second or third place? Maybe you don’t love God at all? Then you need to cry out to God and ask him for mercy. Ask him to make you love him. If you do love God and you find ourself in some bad situations don’t ask how can I get out of this but ask, how can I glorify God in this. And take courage. God hears you and sees you. Remember what Wiliam Cowper wrote in his hymn, “Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust him for his grace; behind a frowning providence he hides a smiling face. 5 His purposes will ripen fast, unfolding ev’ry hour; the bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flow’r. 6 Blind unbelief is sure to err, and scan his work in vain; God is his own interpreter, and he will make it plain.”