Knowing God is Trustworthy

All of us know what it’s like to think of worst-case scenarios. Our minds play havoc with what we think might happen, sometimes with good reasons and other times when there’s little evidence that the worst will happen. Sometimes we deliberately imagine the worst to protect ourselves from disappointment and so we can be pleasantly surprised when things turn out better. The term for this kind of thinking is catastrophizing.

I’m sure I’m not the only one who can envision a simple ache and pain will take me to hospital with a life-threatening diagnosis. Or I replay in my mind a conversation that I felt went badly and it becomes “we’ll never speak to each other again.”

Jacob, in the Bible, had good reason to imagine a worst-case scenario. Last time he saw his brother Esau, Jacob had deceived Esau, and robbed him of his inheritance and their father’s blessing (Genesis 27).

So, when Jacob was to meet Esau after twenty years and Jacob’s servants reported that Esau was coming with 400 men, Jacob imagined that Esau meant to fight (Genesis 32:6).

Jacob thought that moment could be the end of his life. But, Jacob faced another fight—with his thoughts over what God had told him about his life and the reality he now faced.

“O God of my father Abraham, God of my father Isaac, Lord, you who said to me, ‘Go back to your country and your relatives, and I will make you prosper,’ I am unworthy of all the kindness and faithfulness you have shown your servant. I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps. Save me, I pray, from the hand of my brother Esau, for I am afraid he will come and attack me, and also the mothers with their children. But you have said, ‘I will surely make you prosper and will make your descendants like the sand of the sea, which cannot be counted.” (Genesis 32:9-12).

He could see that God had made him prosperous—”I had only my staff when I crossed this Jordan, but now I have become two camps”—but perhaps he couldn’t see how he would have numerous descendants if Esau attacked him and his family. 

Isn’t that often how we wrestle with our own thoughts and in our prayers? We know God has made many good promises to us, taken care of us, guided us and given us good things, but how we see a current situation can make us wrestle, in our minds and with God. 

We imagine worst-case scenarios even in the middle of knowing God is trustworthy. 

We, too, like Jacob need to spend time with God.

When Jacob was alone that night before he met Esau, he wrestled with a man. Scholars think the this man to be an angel but Jacob said it was God.

So Jacob called the place Peniel, saying, “It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared” (Genesis 32:30).

In his wrestling with the man, Jacob came to know more intimately. 

As we wrestle in prayer with our worst-case scenario struggles, we too can know God in more intimate ways. It’s also an opportunity to hear from God—for him to speak into our situations and assure us that we can overcome.

Then the man said, “Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome” (Genesis 32:28).

Sometimes God allows us to struggle in our relationship with him so we too can “overcome.” 

As we battle through our fears of worst-case scenarios that look to be true and what God and his Word tell us to be true, we will come out stronger in our relationship with God and in our outlook on life and our situations.

But more than that, we have a moment in time that we can look back on, remember, talk about and share how we have seen God and experienced God at work in our lives.

So Jacob called the place Peniel saying, “It is because I saw God face to face. 

With God, situations we face do not turn out as bad as we imagined. They become times when we talk about the amazing goodness and greatness of God.

When is a time you have struggled and overcome with God? How have you marked that occasion in your life?

Pray