The One Year Bible - Day 14

Today in Genesis 30 and 31, we have another great example of something we do all the time. We try and help God out with his business instead of letting Him dictate the best decisions we can make. We have his wives playing games with his future family and we have Jacob trying to con Laban out of his livestock at the same time that Laban is trying to reduce what he might have to give to Jacob.

Jacob had his reasons and we read that he justifies himself to his wives on the basis that, "he has cheated me, and changed my wages 10 times" without telling them of his grand scheme to breed lots of livestock that he would keep and reducing the number and quality of Laban's flock. In some ways he gets away with it because God is helping him and his wives believe him but he also creates a lot of trouble for himself. He escapes Laban's wrath simply because of God's grace.

We sometimes do this in a ministry that might be partly God but is sadly partly us too. We might do alright by God's grace but in reality we can have things much better if we spend decent time seeking God on it. Would it be too much to commit at least an hour or two of prayer per week into EACH ministry that we are involved in? How many of us do that? I don't and I think it shows!