A Dream and Promise of Hope

 By: Joanne Viola

 

Dreams …

“According to the National Sleep Foundation, the average person dreams four to six times per night. You might spend as much as 2 hours in dreamland over the course of a night’s sleep, reports the National Institutes of Health.”

(from this article recently read)

Jacob had a dream recorded for us in Genesis 28, in which the Lord declares Who He is to Jacob.

“I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac;
the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants.”
(Genesis 28:13a, NASB)

In this dream, the Lord promises His presence, and a land. He promises a restoration.

But something occurred within Jacob as well in the midst of the dream. When he awoke, he knew God in a different way.

Once God showed up, Jacob found renewed faith to believe the Lord’s words. He was still in the same location but his viewpoint changed.

“Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said,
“Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it.”
(Genesis 28:16, NASB)

Jacob lay down one night to go to sleep. Sleep – a normal and needed and everyday occurrence. He woke up changed.

The Lord can enter every space, every moment in time. In the very place we are, in the happenings of today, He can show up, invading our lives with more of His Presence.

It could be we are on holy ground already. We may well be in the place of blessing. The place where God will fill our longings, and we may be totally unaware. We may already be positioned in the very place where God will show up and bring blessing.

When we grab hold of who God is and His promises, we too come to know Him differently. We discover He was in the very place we thought He was absent. The experience marks us for life, changing us for the days ahead.

We come to know the Lord more deeply, and we view our circumstances differently.

“He [Jacob] said, How awesome is this place!”
(Genesis 28:17, NASB)

Do you feel like you are stuck in circumstances which seem hopeless, unable to be change? How does Jacob’s experience speak hope and restoration to you?

 

Photo by Julien Maculan on Unsplash