“Surely the Lord is in this place, and I wasn’t even aware of it! …What an awesome place this is! It is none other than the house of God, the very gateway to heaven!” ~Jacob (Genesis 28:16,17)

Jacob’s plans had gone awry. He got what he wanted:  he stole his brother’s birthright as well as his blessing as the eldest son, but now he was to become a fugitive. It was in this broken state that He stumbled on the presence of God. These were his words, and we can make them ours today. We are all a bit like Jacob. His name means “treacherous son-of-a-something”; he made his bed and it was time to lay in it, but God had mercy on him. He revealed Himself to Jacob in his darkest hour, and things began to turn around for him. Are you in a dark hour? God is with you whether or not you feel His presence. The place you are standing now contains a portal into His presence if you will open up your eyes to His Word, His promises, and His purposes in your life.

My Father,

You are here with me even though I’ve been unaware of you. You have placed before me a gateway that will lead me to you. In faith I take a step towards you, inviting you to come into my life, to teach me, change me, and make me the person you created me to be. Your Word says that if I seek you, I will find you. I’m seeking you now, and I’m ready for you to lay claim to the rest of my life for your purposes and your glory. I repent of insisting on my own way, doing my own thing, calling my own shots, and following after my own selfish desires. Each of these has deposited me on this dead-end road, wracked with pain. I’m ready now to be everything you’ve made me to be. Take me. I’m yours now. And I’m entering your presence through the portal of your great love and forgiveness. 

In Jesus’ Name Amen. 

The Amplified Bible footnote reads:

“There is an open way between heaven and earth for each of us. The movement of the tide and the circulation of the blood are not more regular than the intercommunication between heaven and earth. Jacob may have thought that God was local; now he found Him to be omnipresent. Every lonely spot was His house, filled with angels” (F. B. Meyer, Through the Bible Day by Day). When Jacob found God in his own heart, he found Him everywhere.