Click this link to hear an audio version of the below text narrated by SOTH member Jerry Rhinehart:
Genesis 26:12-22 (NIV)
12 Isaac planted crops in that land and the same year reaped a hundredfold because the Lord blessed him. 13 The man became rich, and his wealth continued to grow until he became very wealthy. 14 He had so many flocks and herds and servants that the Philistines envied him. 15 So all the wells that his father’s servants had dug in the time of his father Abraham, the Philistines stopped up, filling them with earth. 16 Then Abimelek said to Isaac, “Move away from us; you have become too powerful for us.” 17 So Isaac moved away from there and encamped in the Valley of Gerar, where he settled. 18 Isaac reopened the wells that had been dug in the time of his father Abraham, which the Philistines had stopped up after Abraham died, and he gave them the same names his father had given them. 19 Isaac’s servants dug in the valley and discovered a well of fresh water there. 20 But the herders of Gerar quarreled with those of Isaac and said, “The water is ours!” So he named the well Esek because they disputed with him. 21 Then they dug another well, but they quarreled over that one also; so he named it Sitnah. 22 He moved on from there and dug another well, and no one quarreled over it. He named it Rehoboth, saying, “Now the Lord has given us room and we will flourish in the land.”
Patiently wait on the Lord and win in the face of unrighteous resistance.
Sometimes life is not fair. We currently live in a world were good is considered bad and bad is acceptable. Even though my intentions are responsible, my behavior disciplined and my accomplishments successful, I am still rejected. Help me, Lord, to not despair, but instead to patiently wait on Your justification in the face of unrighteous resistance. If I am wrongfully driven from one place keep me moving toward You until You make room for me in another place, or in another way where I can be a blessing in Your name. Amen