Bible Text: Genesis 32:1-33:30 | Preacher: Pastor Joe Ricchuiti | Series: Encounters on the Road to Reconciliation, Genesis

1.  Jacob’s prayer in Genesis 32 is a model prayer is many ways (much like the “Disciple’s Prayer in Matthew 6).  He prays on the basis of a relationship with God; he repeats God’s Word to Him, reminding Him of His commands and promises; he confesses his unworthiness; he acknowledges God’s work in his life previously; and he makes his request.

2.  Concerning Jacobs encounter with God in Genesis 32, it was said: “To be left alone with God is the only true way of arriving at a just knowledge of ourselves and our ways.  …No matter what we may think about ourselves, nor yet what man may think about us, the great question is, what does God think about us?  And the answer to this question can only be learned when we are ‘left alone.’  Away from the world, away from self, away from all the thoughts, reasonings, imaginings, and emotions of mere nature, and ‘alone with God,’—thus, and thus alone, can we get a correct judgment about ourselves.”  (C.H.M. quoted in Gleanings in Genesis)