Some encouragement when your plans go poorly

Mar 18, 2026

God Makes Room for Us

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And [Isaac] moved from there and dug another well, and they did not quarrel over it. So he called its name Rehoboth, saying, “For now the Lord has made room for us, and we shall be fruitful in the land.”

Genesis 26:22 (ESV)

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If you want some encouragement when plans go awry, this is a good verse.

For context, the well here is something like the third well he had to dig after the first two were fought over and “claimed” by other people.

It’s annoying to finish a task and have to do it all over again … and then again.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve done plenty of projects where I got almost to the end and realized, “I messed something up… I have to start over.”

Isaac is facing a worse situation than that:

He finished the work, it was taken from him, and he had to start over again.

At least my projects were mistakes I made, not outside interference stealing them from me.

But I love the attitude that Isaac has here. He calls the well Rehoboth which roughly translates to “room,” and it stands as a testimony to the Lord making room for him and his family.

God does that:

Makes room for us when it seems like there’s no room left.

Often we want the room to come by seeing success immediately.

Yet that’s often not the path God chooses. This story is the more familiar path, where we do a project, face adversity, and God comes through for us.

More than the blessing he sees from the immediate & obvious work of God, Isaac recognizes the blessing God will give him and is optimistic that the Lord will make them fruitful (i.e., successful) in the land.

— Ricky Ketchum

Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from the ESV®Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright© 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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