Ration #1 from Crisis Survival Rations: God is with me

For those of you who are wondering what rations are, here is a sample, taken directly from my book Crisis Survival Rations, available from Amazon.com. You'll find a link on the left. I have distributed more than a 1000 copies of this book all over the world since 1996, mostly as gifts to friends or friends of friends  who have been suffering. I'd like to see it get into the hands of those ministering to hurting people, because so many have told me how much it gave them hope through their desperate times. Here is the first of the 52 in the book:

Now Jacob...went to a certain place and stayed there all night, because the sun had set. And he took one of the stones of that place and put it at his head, and he lay down in that place to sleep. Then he dreamed, and behold a ladder was set up on the earth and its top reached to heaven...And behold the Lord stood above it...Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, "Surely the Lord is in this place, and I did not know it."   And he was afraid and said, "How awesome is this place!"

Genesis 28:10-13,16,17

That place was awesome, not because it offered any comfort or beauty, since Jacob had only a rock for a pillow. It was awesome because God was there.  God is here, with me in my place of suffering, persecution, and grief.  He will allow me to stay here exactly as long as I need to be here.  The pain here makes me want to rush away as quickly as my feet will carry me, but He is here, in this place.  Maybe, if I can remember that, I can stay long enough to grow, or heal, or learn what I need to be His person in that other place where I live in the easier times.

Almighty God, thank you that you never leave me on my own to endure suffering.  You are here, even when I do not know it. You are the same God, who was with Jacob, and every other believer before or since. You have not changed, and you do not change now. Thank you for your presence.  Help me not to miss anything you want to teach me today while I am here.