The "Come to Jesus" Moment

This was a great devotional that I truly needed today!

-Jules 

Jacob said to his household, “Get rid of the foreign gods you have with you, and purify yourselves... Then come, let us go up to Bethel, where I will build an altar to God.” So they gave Jacob all the foreign gods, and Jacob buried them under the oak at Shechem. — Genesis 35:2–4 

Maybe you’ve had a “Come to Jesus” moment, a point in your life when you finally realized you were headed in the wrong direction, that you were going nowhere fast, that you were not making Mom proud, that you could hardly look at yourself in the mirror.

Jacob had chronic hip pain to remind him of his “Come to Jesus” moment — and clearly the moment affected more than his hip. His heart was changed too: he called the people to abandon their false gods and turn to the one true God, the One who answered Jacob’s prayers and “has been with me wherever I have gone” (Genesis 35:3).

Then the Lord blessed Jacob by reiterating the promises spoken to his grandfather and his father:

A nation and a community of nations will come from you... The land I gave to Abraham and Isaac I also give to you, and I will give this land to your descendants after you. — Genesis 35:11–12