Eliezer, the servant of Abraham was
looking for a wife for Isaac in Abraham's home country amongst his
relatives. He travelled all the way to the village where Nahor,
Abraham's brother had settled. There at the well outside of the
village he prayed that God help him on his mission. He prayed that
the first woman, who will be prepared to give water to him and to
his ten camels, should be the wife that God had planned for Isaac.
As we saw last week, Eliezer was looking for a woman with a
servant's heart.
God is faithful and looks after His
children. And in this situation it was no different. While Eliezer
was still praying Rebekah arrived at the well and when
Eliezer asked her for a drink, she replied:
"Certainly, sir," she said, and
she quickly lowered the jug for him to drink. When he had finished,
she said, "I'll draw water for your camels, too, until they have
had enough!" So she quickly emptied the jug into the watering
trough and ran down to the well again. She kept carrying water to
the camels until they had finished drinking." Genesis
24:18-20
Rebekah was the one he was praying
for. She not only offered to water his camels, she offered to give
them water until they have had enough! And now we know how much a
camel can drink. She also did her job with vigour, running to and
fro the well until they had enough. She had a servant heart and was
ready to help. She didn't expect to be compensated for her effort.
But Eliezer wanted to bless her and gave her a gold ring for her
nose and two large gold bracelets. And when he asked if they can
sleep over at her father's home that night she readily agreed. She
and her family were hospitable people (something we can learn from
them too!). Then she told him that her grandparents were Nahor,
Abraham's brother. Eliezer was so happy when he heard that and he
fell to his knees and worshipped the Lord:
"Praise be to the Lord, the God
of my master, Abraham," he said. "The Lord has been so kind and
faithful to Abraham, for He has led me straight to my master's
relatives." Genesis 24:27
Eliezer did the right thing and
immediately gave all honour and praise to God. He acknowledged
God's hand in this and praised and thanked Him for His help.
Often times we pray for things and
when it happens we forget to say thank you. Mostly we will remember
to say thank you when big things that we prayed for happen, but we
tend to forget about the smaller things. I know I do sometimes. And
it is not right. God loves to receive praises from His children.
That is why He didn't make us robots that are forced to praise Him,
because what is the joy in that? He finds joy when His children
acknowledge Him and praise Him for all He does for them. Of all the
ten lepers that Jesus healed only one returned to say thank you.
And Jesus asked him where the other nine were, even though He knew.
He simply wanted to make a point that all were supposed to
come back and thank Him.
Remember when praying to thank the
Lord for all the wonderful things He has done and for all His
provisions for us. Thank Him and praise Him. Maybe even write down
certain things you are praying for and page through that book now
and again. You will be pleasantly surprised how God answered them
and thank Him for it. Make thanking God a part of your daily
prayer, and do it spontaneously like Eliezer did. He didn't worry
what anyone thought of him. He immediately fell down and worshipped
God for His kindness. Isn't that just a wonderful example to
follow!
Thank you Father for all Your
kindness. Thank you for listening to us and hearing our prayers.
Thank you for Your abundance of grace towards us. Thank you thank
you thank you. We are sorry that we forget to say it sometimes, but
thank you. You are our everything, our first Love! In Jesus' Name.
Amen