Early the next morning Jacob took the stone he had placed under his head and set it up as a pillar and poured oil on top of it. He called that place Bethel, though the city used to be called Luz.”
Genesis 28:18-19
Have you ever had those moments in your life when you know without a doubt that God was there? Or maybe you have a time period where you felt so close to God that you could almost touch him? And then……you find yourself in a place where you forget him, question him, ask if he is even real?
We all face times of doubt, questioning and lostness. But how do we experience times that we know without any doubt and then not too long later we doubt? How do we forget so quickly? What if there was a way to always remember? What if we put things in our paths to forever remind us of his goodness, realness, and love for us?
As life would have it, and consequences from past decisions would begin to awaken, Esau’s hatred for Jacob grew and he planned to take Jacob’s life. Rebekah, Jacob’s mom, not wanting to lose her son, sent him to live with her brother Laban and find a wife for him to marry. On the road to his uncles home, Jacob stopped for the night because the journey was too long. He laid his head on a stone to sleep and immediately began to dream of God.
He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. There above it stood the LORD, and he said: “I am the LORD, the God of your Father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.”
Genesis 28:12-13
God begins to lay out his promise to Jacob in this dream with a promised future where He will protect Jacob and always be with him. As Jacob awakens, in full amazement, he realizes not only was this a very Holy Moment but this was an especially Holy Place.
He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of Heaven.”
Genesis 28:17
I’m sure Jacob had MANY different memories in his past, one being of stealing his brothers birth right, but in this moment he recognized the promise of God and never wanted to forget it. So, Jacob took the stone he’d used as a pillow the night before and set it up as a memorial pillar to remember what God had done and said forever.
Throughout our lives God will do things, truly special things, that will make our eyes focus on Him in that moment, that God Moment. But as soon as life gets going again and the world consumes us, we will get distracted and forget His Presence, wondering if he was even there after all……unless we remember. Unless we have a reminder to remember the God moment. We need these individual moments to burn memories into our heart so we never forget what ONLY He has done.
We as humans are forgetful, we forget God, it’s part of our sin nature, but He never forgets us. Making something to memorialize the moment is a gift that can keep our eyes turning back to Him to never forget the One that never forgets us.
These God moments can be made into memory stones as simple as a cross around your neck that reminds you of the cross Jesus bore for us, a picture you frame, a stone from the river you almost drowned in, your childhood Bible with markings of prayers, or a Captain America shirt that you wore in your first marathon after your son’s death.
Whatever it is, whenever you see it, you remember what God has already done in your life. If he was with you then, He is with you now, and you can trust Him to get you through to the end.
God gave Jacob a promise in his dream of the land he would own and the people that would come from Him. God provided me the strength and power to keep on going, to not slow down, and to share His story because He wasn’t done with me yet.
Where has God revealed himself to you, what has He already done in your life? Why not make a Memory Stone out of the God moments to remember His Goodness and Faithfulness to you always.
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Running 2 Fly 