There are moments in life when the trouble in front of us becomes so large that we temporarily forget everything God has already done behind us. A new problem appears, fear begins speaking, and suddenly yesterday’s miracles feel distant. We know God has been faithful, but the present situation still makes us wonder how this chapter will end.
In “Jacob Prayed Part 2,” Bishop Omar Thibeaux brings us into one of those moments in Jacob’s life. Jacob was returning home and preparing to face Esau. He had every reason to understand God’s faithfulness because his life was filled with evidence of it. God had protected him, provided for him, increased him, given him family, brought him through difficult years with Laban, and fulfilled promises that once seemed impossible.
Yet Jacob still needed God again.
What makes his prayer so powerful is that Jacob did not begin by acting as though God had never done anything for him. He looked backward before he looked forward. He remembered what God had promised, acknowledged what God had already fulfilled, and allowed yesterday’s faithfulness to strengthen today’s request.
Prayer Should Remember What God Has Already Done
Bishop draws attention to Jacob’s words when he tells God that He had established His promises and given him riches, children, cattle, and the desires of his heart. Jacob could look at his life and recognize that the blessings surrounding him were not accidents. God had done exactly what He said He would do.
That remembrance became part of Jacob’s prayer.
This is an important lesson because prayer can easily become focused only on what we still need. We can move from request to request without stopping long enough to acknowledge what has already happened. Yesterday’s answered prayer becomes today’s normal life, and before long we can forget that something we now take for granted was once something we desperately prayed to receive.
The home we complain about may once have been the home we begged God for. The vehicle that feels ordinary now may have been an answer to prayer when we had no transportation. The spouse we sometimes overlook may have been someone we once asked God to send. Health, children, employment, provision, peace of mind, and even the simple ability to wake up and move through another day can become so familiar that we forget how valuable they are.
Jacob teaches us to remember.
Praise God for the Past
Sometimes the faith we need for today already exists inside yesterday’s testimony.
Bishop takes time in the sermon to remind the congregation of the moments when God stepped into impossible circumstances. Some people have survived sickness that could have taken their lives. Others have survived accidents, financial hardship, dangerous situations, incarceration, family crises, or seasons when they genuinely did not know how they would make it.
And yet they are still here.
Those moments should not disappear from our memory simply because years have passed. Bishop compares that kind of remembrance to the stones of remembrance used in Scripture. The purpose was simple: do not forget the place where God showed up.
We need those reminders because difficult seasons have a way of producing spiritual amnesia. The current problem begins telling us that God is absent, even while our entire history says otherwise.
When the next challenge comes, remembering what God already brought us through changes the way we see what is happening now.
If He carried us then, He can carry us again.
Praise God in the Present
Gratitude should not live only in our memories. Bishop also challenges us to recognize what God is doing right now.
Human nature constantly searches for the next thing. We look toward the next house, the next opportunity, the next financial level, the next relationship breakthrough, or the next answered prayer. There is nothing wrong with believing God for more, but something becomes spiritually unhealthy when desire for tomorrow steals our gratitude for today.
You may not be where you ultimately want to be, but that does not mean there is nothing worth praising God for.
Sometimes we need to look again.
There may still be a roof over our heads. There may still be food available. There may still be people who love us. There may still be strength in our bodies. We may still have transportation, employment, community, family, or simply another opportunity to wake up and continue the journey.
The present blessing may not look dramatic anymore because we have become accustomed to it, but familiarity does not make it less valuable.
What If the Difficult Season Is Also Teaching You?
One of the strongest ideas in the sermon is Bishop’s teaching about praising God even during difficult circumstances.
That does not mean pretending that hardship feels good. It means recognizing that God can produce good from a season we would never have chosen for ourselves.
Bishop reflects on financially difficult years in his own life. At the time, those seasons felt painful. Yet when he looked back, he could see that those years became one of his greatest teachers. The difficulty taught lessons about money, discipline, success, provision, and preparation that prosperity alone might never have taught him.
Sometimes the place we are trying desperately to escape is also the classroom God is using to prepare us.
Joseph experienced betrayal, slavery, false accusation, and imprisonment before he ever reached leadership in Egypt. None of those seasons looked like promotion while he was inside them. Yet each one formed part of the road that prepared him for what came later.
The back of a tapestry can look like tangled knots and loose threads. Turn it around, however, and the same threads form a picture. Bishop uses this idea to remind us that our lives can look confusing from our limited perspective while God is still creating something beautiful from His.
Praise God for the Future
Faith does not only praise for what has already happened. Faith can praise because of what God has promised.
Bishop calls this praising God in advance.
We do not need psychic predictions or perfect knowledge of tomorrow to have hope. Scripture already gives believers promises that allow us to face uncertain seasons with confidence. Our current circumstances do not determine the conclusion of our lives.
A lost job does not mean God has lost His plan.
A difficult financial season does not erase His ability to provide.
A family struggle does not prevent Him from restoring.
A delay does not mean God has forgotten.
We can praise because our hope rests in the character and promises of God rather than the appearance of the moment.
That kind of praise does something inside us. It shifts our attention away from the size of the problem and back toward the greatness of God.
Praise Is More Than an Emotional Response
Bishop goes even further and describes praise as a weapon.
Praise strengthens faith because it forces us to remember evidence. When we begin thanking God for what He has already done, the present problem starts looking different. We remember that this is not the first difficult situation we have faced, and it is not the first one God has brought us through.
Praise also changes the spiritual atmosphere of the believer. Bishop points to Paul and Silas praising God in prison and to Jehoshaphat sending worshippers ahead of the army. Those stories show people praising while the battle still existed, not merely after everything was resolved.
That distinction matters.
Anyone can celebrate after the answer arrives. Faith praises while the answer is still on the way.
You Never Brought Me This Far to Leave Me
The message reaches its emotional center when Jacob essentially looks back over his journey and reasons with God from the history they already share.
God had brought him through Laban. God had sustained him through years of labor. God had allowed him to prosper despite people changing the conditions around him. God had protected him when Laban pursued him. God had instructed him to return home.
Now Esau stood ahead of him.
Jacob’s prayer carries the weight of a simple question: after everything You have already done, would You bring me through all of that just to abandon me here?
Bishop brings that same question directly into our lives.
Think about how far God has carried you.
Think about childhood. Think about mistakes you survived. Think about sickness. Think about heartbreak. Think about financial struggles. Think about dangerous decisions, disappointments, rejection, broken relationships, grief, abuse, addiction, failure, or seasons when you had absolutely no idea what came next.
You are still here.
God has invested life into you. He has given you breath and strength. He has provided again and again. Above everything else, He gave His Son for you and His Spirit to dwell with you.
That is not the history of a God who has suddenly decided to stop caring about your life.
Bishop says it plainly: God has invested too much in you for you to give up now.
Keep Going
Sometimes we give up when breakthrough is closer than we realize.
Fatigue tells us nothing is happening. Delay tells us God has forgotten. Fear tells us this time will be different. But our history with God tells another story.
The same God who carried you before is still God today.
So remember before you request. Praise before you panic. Look back before you decide that there is no way forward.
Praise Him for the past because He has been faithful.
Praise Him in the present because you are still blessed.
Praise Him for the future because His promises have not changed.
And when the road gets difficult, remind your heart of what Jacob’s life teaches us:
He didn’t bring you this far to leave you now.
