Revised Common Lectionary (Semicontinuous)

Prayer for Help in Time of Trouble

17 Hear what is right, O Lord. Listen to my cry. Hear my prayer, for it does not come from lying lips. ² May You decide in my favor. May Your eyes see what is right. ³ You have tested my heart. You have visited me during the night. You have tested me and have found nothing wrong. I have decided that my mouth will not sin. ⁴ As for the actions of men, by the word of Your lips, I have kept myself from the paths of those who want to hurt others. ⁵ My steps have followed Your paths. My feet have not turned from them.

⁶ I have called to You, O God, for You will answer me. Listen to me and hear my words. ⁷ Show Your great loving-kindness. You save by Your right hand the people that come to You for help from those who hate them.

¹⁵ As for me, I will see Your face in what is right and good. I will be happy to see You when I awake.

Jacob Leaves Laban

31 Jacob heard the words of Laban’s sons, saying, “Jacob has taken away all that our father had. He has become rich with what had belonged to our father.” ² Jacob saw that Laban did not show him as much favor as he did before. ³ Then the Lord said to Jacob, “Return to the land of your fathers and to those of your family. And I will be with you.”

⁴ So Jacob called Rachel and Leah to come to his flock in the field. ⁵ He said to them, “I see that your father does not show me as much favor as he did before. But the God of my father has been with me. ⁶ You know that I have worked for your father with all my strength. ⁷ Yet your father has not been fair with me. He has changed my pay ten times. But God did not let him hurt me. ⁸ If he said, ‘The animals that have spots will be your pay,’ then all the flock gave birth to young ones with spots. If he said, ‘The animals with black marks will be your pay,’ then all the flock gave birth to young ones with black marks. ⁹ So God has taken away your father’s animals and has given them to me. ¹⁰ I had a dream at the time the flocks were mating. I looked up and saw that the male goats which were mating with the female goats had black marks and spots. ¹¹ Then the angel of God said to me in the dream, ‘Jacob,’ and I said, ‘Here I am.’ ¹² He said, ‘Look and see how all the male goats that are mating with the others have black marks and spots. For I have seen all that Laban has been doing to you. ¹³ I am the God of Bethel, where you set up a stone in honor to Me, and where you made a promise to Me. Now get up, leave this land, and return to the land of your birth.’”

¹⁴ Rachel and Leah answered him, “Do we still have any part or share in our father’s house? ¹⁵ Does he not think of us as strangers? For he has sold us. And he has used all the money that was paid for us. ¹⁶ All the riches that God has taken away from our father belong to us and our children. So do whatever God has told you to do.”

¹⁷ Then Jacob got up and put his children and his wives on camels. ¹⁸ He took away all his animals, all the riches he had gathered and all the cattle he had gathered in Paddan-aram. And he left to go to his father Isaac in the land of Canaan. ¹⁹ Laban had gone to cut the wool from his flock. And Rachel stole the gods of her father’s house. ²⁰ Jacob fooled Laban the Syrian by not telling him that he was going. ²¹ So he left with all he had. He went and crossed the Euphrates River, and turned toward the hill country of Gilead.

Jesus Teaches about Prayer

⁷ “Ask, and what you are asking for will be given to you. Look, and what you are looking for you will find. Knock, and the door you are knocking on will be opened to you. ⁸ Everyone who asks receives what he asks for. Everyone who looks finds what he is looking for. Everyone who knocks has the door opened to him. ⁹ What man among you would give his son a stone if he should ask for bread? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, would he give him a snake? ¹¹ You are bad and you know how to give good things to your children. How much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask Him?