阅读经文 

有时候，神会把我们放在一个自己无法掌控的环境中，来使我们谦卑。

对雅各来说，这种谦卑开始于他自己的家庭。他的舅舅诱骗他和自己不爱的利亚结婚，造成了她和拉结争抢雅各的爱。在利亚开始有孩子后，这种争斗比任何时候都强烈。任何不孕不育的挣扎都是非常痛苦的，拉结的反应是可以预见的苦毒。

尽管雅各指出，他无法减轻拉结的痛苦，他向拉结生气。雅各像我们许多人一样，习惯倚靠自己的能力来解决问题。但无法帮助拉结，这让他很受挫，这又导致了他去挫败和伤害周围的人。倚靠自己的能力往往会这样。

但雅各的话比他自己知道的更真实：“我岂能代替（神）呢？”（参创 30:2）虽然他还没有完全领会到这一真理，但这些话显出雅各越来越意识到自己不是神，生活超出了他的掌控。

当我们发现自己处于无法掌控的境地，我们可能会沮丧——也会使他人沮丧。或者我们可以承认，自己不是神，我们就可以开始拥抱祂恩典的看顾。

Sometimes God humbles us by putting us in situations beyond our control.

For Jacob, this humbling began with his own family. His uncle tricked him into a marriage with Leah, whom he failed to love, creating a rivalry with Rachel for his affection. Nowhere was this rivalry felt more strongly than when Leah began having children. Any struggle with infertility can be deeply painful, and Rachel reacted with predictable bitterness.

While Jacob rightly points out that it is beyond his ability to ease Rachel's pain, his response is one of anger. Like many of us, Jacob is accustomed to leaning on his own ability to solve problems. But his inability to help Rachel frustrates him, and it leads him to frustrate and hurt the people around him. Confidence in our own abilities often does that.

But Jacob's words are truer than he knows: "Am I in the place of God . . . ?" While he has not yet fully grasped this truth, these words reveal a growing awareness that Jacob is not God. Life is beyond his control.

We can be frustrated—and we can frustrate others—when we find ourselves in situations outside of our control. Or we can admit that we are not God, and we can begin to embrace his gracious care for us.