March 28

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Then Jacob was left alone… Genesis 32:24

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🔊 Nearly everything that really counts in a person is done alone with God. Moses spent long years contemplating God in the wilderness, and that prepared him for his divine encounter at the burning bush. Moses later received the Law, alone with God on the mountain. Jesus conquered temptation alone with God in the wilderness. Our greatest and most significant battles must be fought alone, when we are not moved by any audience, or by pressure from others. We must face our problems alone with God. The point is that alone with God we are freed from religious pretence. This takes time, since the last thing that we want is to be forced to face up to what we are really like. It might be scary at first, because we know in our hearts that we are in a worse condition than we have ever admitted. We secretly think that we might face something about ourselves that will disqualify us. The truth is that when we get alone with God, it slowly dawns on us that it does not matter how bad we are, since God is there to change us. Alone with God we are able to yield to Him who draws us, without threats, into His loving embrace, where all our awkwardness is absorbed into Him and we are changed for ever. After being alone with God, we will never be the same again.