Jacob is afraid. God has sent him home. Even though it’s been twenty years, he’s still very much afraid of his brother Esau. He hears Esau is coming to greet him with 400 men along with him. Jacob decides to protect himself and sends servants up ahead with hundreds of animals as gifts for his brother. He separates his people and animals into groups in case Esau kills some of them.

When Jacob prays to God asking for deliverance from Esau, he says to the Lord, “I am not worthy of the least of all the deeds of steadfast love and all the faithfulness that you have shown to your servant.”

He acknowledges God. God is the one who sent Him home, but he’s not trusting that if God sent him, He’d make a way or that God will provide what’s necessary along the way, like protection.

He calls Him the God of steadfast love. His love is a sure thing. It’s unwavering. God’s not going to change His mind about you. After a million years in heaven, He’s not going to say, “Never mind. I never really liked this one.” He’ll love you just as much then as He did when He thought you up.

And God is faithful. We can trust Him. Loving God is really about trusting Him. We obey because we trust Him and His Word.

Jacob calls them God’s deeds of steadfast love and faithfulness. These aren’t fuzzy feelings. They are deeds, actions. God came through for him.

If we want to show love and faithfulness towards God, we need to do it not with feelings and words. We need to do it with actions (1 John 3:18).

How do we show God love? We obey His commandments. How do we show faithfulness? We don’t turn the other way. We remain rooted and grounded in love and don’t question who He is and what He’s doing. We follow Him always and don’t turn to the right or the left. We never choose another to be our salvation. We choose Him.