The Journey Home
From Sunday Morning
by Bro Josh Linton on February 08, 2015
When God created man, He gave each man and woman an innate desire to seek out home. When we hear the word home, we think about friends and family, our birthplace, or even our eternal resting place—we all desire to see Heaven one day.
But, many of us in our Christian walk have deviated from a different home; the spiritual walk we have with our Creator every day, the intimate relationship we have with God. Because we are designed with an inner desire to seek out home (God), we set out many times to renew our relationship with Him. However, we face the looming question of How?
In Genesis, we read about a man named Jacob. The name Jacob by definition means supplanter and deceiver. In general terms, Jacob was a liar. Jacob deceived his brother Esau, and robbed him from his birthright (Genesis 25:31–34). Then, Jacob deceived his father, and took his brother’s blessing (Genesis 27:33–41). As a result, Jacob fled his family and his country because he feared the wrath of his brother.
Because of Jacob’s deceptive acts, he was separated from his family. He wasn’t home. His body was on the run for many years, but his mind was always on home. Fear that kept him away from his earthy family, but it also kept him away from God.
Jacob knew he had sinned against his brother and against God. And, like each of us, he questioned if he tried to return home, if he would be accepted and forgiven. His fear held him back from going home. His fear kept him out of the presence of God.
Just like Jacob, we too need to determine what is holding us back from our walk with God. What in our life has caused us to reach a dead end in our road? Is something in life keeping us away from God’s sheltered arms? Are we a prisoner in our own minds? Once we remove the roadblock(s), we can continue on toward our destination. We can take our first step home.
Upon leaving his home and country, Jacob had settled with his father-in-law. Jacob dwelled many years apart from his family, thinking that he had reached a dead end in life, but God spoke to him:
And the LORD said unto Jacob, Return unto the land of thy fathers, and to thy kindred; and I will be with thee (Genesis 31:3, KJV).
Jacob knew he had been gone too long and needed to go home. There wasn’t a question in his mind of where he should go. He felt the longing in his heart, and he received the direction from God. Return home.
Many of us know we’ve been absent in our spiritual walk for far too long and we need to go home. We need to remember that it doesn’t matter how long we’ve been away. We just need to make the decision to start on our journey back to God. We need to focus on going home.
God is the father of all creation. We are all His children. Just as no earthly father would want his child away from home for decades, or even days, God doesn’t want His children to be apart from Him. We need to start on getting home—back to prayer, back to reading the Word, back to the house of God, and back into His presence. The only way we can go home is to have an encounter with God and to allow Him to complete a work in us.
God told Jacob in Genesis 31:3 that “[He] would be well with [him].” God was going to be with Jacob every step of the way. God was trying to tell Jacob that his life wasn’t over and he was going to make it.
God is telling us every day that the journey is long, but it isn’t over. We have a path in front of us that God sees and He wants us to travel forward. Just as God told Jacob it would be “well,” God is telling us that He will never leave and forsake us (Hebrews 13:5); He will be right there until the end.
Jacob left his family and his country empty-handed, but he came back with double (Genesis 32:10). God made his journey home worth it! If there are promised blessings living for God, we should ask ourselves: Why are we staying away from His presence? We need to listen to that still small voice and get back home into the presence and blessings of the Lord.
Jacob was on the border of his home country, full of encouragement, and possibly pleased he was doing the will of God. But the moment home was in sight, he started to feel discouraged. The fear that once had been removed from his mind started to return. He started to think again that he couldn’t make it home or maybe even that he shouldn’t.
We can’t allow the devil, others, or even ourselves to convince us that we can’t make it home, that we aren’t worthy of God’s love and forgiveness, or that we will never live a life under the protection of the most high God.
God had told Jacob, “I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude” (Genesis 32:12). We need to remember the promises of the Lord when we feel discouraged. We need to encourage ourselves in the Lord (I Samuel 30:16), and remind ourselves that we are a chosen generation and royal priesthood (I Peter 2:9). We aren’t just a “nobody” with the promise of “nothing.” We are somebody—we are a child of the King!
Just before completing his journey, Jacob went away and spent time alone with God. Scripture tells us that alone he “wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he prevailed not against him, he touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him” (Genesis 32:24–25).
Even after an injury, Jacob still would not release his grasp from the angel of the Lord until he was changed, until he received a blessing. In the end of our story, we read where Jacob received his blessing, received a name change, and completed his journey home to the open arms of a forgiving Esau.
Until we make it all the way home, we will never complete the journey. We know we’ve made it home when we have an experience with God that changes us. Jacob received a new name, and started a new journey with God. We need to do the same.
There is forgiveness in store for us if we just return home. We can’t live our lives and forget God. We can’t feel that we’re too proud to pray. We can’t feel like God’s presence and blessings are for someone else; they are for each of us. We can’t let anything get in our way of going home. Don’t give up now. We’re almost home.
