Pray the Word with David Platt is a resource from radical.net.

Genesis chapter 48, verse 15.

And he blessed Joseph and said,

The God before whom my father's Abraham and Isaac walks,

the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day. Oh, I love this verse. This is Jacob, blessing Joseph.

And as he does, listen to the way he speaks about God. I'll read it again. He says,

The God before whom my father's Abraham and Isaac walked.

So he's looking back and how God has been faithful to his grandfather, Abraham, to his father, Isaac, in a way that has carried on to God being faithful to him, the God before whom my father's

Abraham and Isaac walked, and he says the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day.

What a picture of God's loving leadership in Jacob's life, that he would look back.

So this is at the end of Jacob's life. He would look back. And he would say, God has shepherded my life

every day. And you think about all that you read about in the book of Genesis that

Jacob has done, I mean, ways he has sinned, and ways God has met him, and how he's wrestled

with God, and just all the circumstances Jacob has walked through. And his conclusion, as he looks back at

it all, is God has been my shepherd all my lifelong to this day. And I read this and I just

immediately in my own life, I just start looking back at good days, at hard days, even at times I have sinned in horrible ways.

And God has proven faithful to shepherd my soul, ultimately to save my soul, and to lead me and to guide me to work in it all, even in the hardest

days, to work in it all as my good shepherd. And I want to encourage you, he's your shepherd too.

Jesus came saying, I am the good shepherd. I lay my life down for my sheep. He loves you.

And he is the shepherd of your life. And he will shepherd your life as you trust in him for your good

and for his glory as the great shepherd. So I encourage you to look back today and to God who has been faithful to so many who

have gone before us in faith and the God who promises to be a faithful shepherd to you.

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