'A Present Made The Way.'
Genesis 32:17-18.
a) This was Jacob's instruction.
b) When my brother Esau meets you,
c) And asks:
1-"Who do you belong to?
2-"Where are you going?
3-"Who owns all these animals in front of you?"
d) Then you are to say:
1-"They belong to your servant Jacob.
2-"They are a gift sent to my lord Esau,
3-"And he is coming behind us."
(In this QT I can see that A Present Made The Way)
PRAYER: That when we make reconciliation, we will execute it wisely.
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'Beautiful Beginning To Restoration Of Relationship.'
Luke 15:20.
a) So he got up
b) And came to his father.
c) But while he was still a long way off,
d) His father saw him and felt compassion for him and:
1-Ran.
2-Embraced him.
3-Kissed him.
(This Second one reveals a Beautiful Beginning To Restoration Of Relationship)
PRAYER: That we can make a Beautiful Beginning To Reconciliation with another, when we are led by the Lord to do so.
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Chris.
Jacob's plan was to send the presents first. This made me think about the whole process of reconciliation. And why, today, reconciliation in the family or Church many times does not seem to work, even though we want it to.
When we have hurt another person, we may not realise how wounded they feel. Our lack of consideration, care, or humility can sometimes break a relationship or make a relationship unnecessarily difficult.
Reconciliation is not something to be taken lightly. Careless or thoughtless efforts to reconcile can even make the problem worse.
We cannot 'pass off' Jacob's efforts to reconcile as merely being a Bible story, we need to learn some principles from it!
1-Jacob prepared for the reconciliation and did not treat it glibly or lightly.
2-To reconcile, there is sometimes a journey to be made so that it can be done properly, face-to-face. (Avoiding face-to-face, when it is necessary, means that reconciliation cannot properly be made.) We need to go to make the reconciliation and resist the temptation to do it through the telephone or over the internet.
3-If this QT makes us feel uncomfortable, then we need to ask God: "Why am I feeling like this?" If we do that prayerfully, I am sure that God will answer us clearly and well.
4-We can only make reconciliation with people we know and have a relationship or friendship with, close friends or family members. This is important! To attempt to reconcile with others, outside of the family/friendship circle, can be painful and disastrous.
5-We need to realise that sometimes our attempts to reconcile may be rejected by the person (or persons) that we are attempting to reconcile with.
6-If our approaches to reconciliation are rejected by another person, we just simply and privately intercede for them. We should not keep trying and trying, they know that we are attempting to reconcile, we should simply pray for God to open their heart, so that they can respond to our attempts.
7-In an authority structured culture, it is almost impossible for us to initiate reconciliation with someone 'above' us in the culture. The one 'above' needs to initiate, then we can respond to them.
