I imagine you know the feeling too well of being “used” by someone. Like you were nothing more than a stepping stone for their own success. Then you know how Jacob must have felt after 14 long years of labor under Laban.

Yesterday, we walked through Genesis 30:25-43, a story of manipulation, schemes, and divine reversal. Jacob was ready to move on, to leave behind the years of struggle and return home. But Laban had other plans. He wasn’t about to let go of the man who had made him rich.

So Laban made a deal—one that seemed fair on the surface but was stacked against Jacob. He rigged the system, made sure Jacob started with nothing, and assumed he would keep his son-in-law trapped in his service.

But what Laban didn’t understand was that God sees everything. And when God determines to bless His people, no human scheme can stand in His way.

Jacob wasn’t perfect—he still had a lot to learn about trusting God fully—but in the end, it wasn’t his weird strategy of using stripped branches that made him successful. It was God’s providence. Despite the deception, despite the odds, God reversed the situation and blessed Jacob abundantly.

What Does This Have to Do with Love?

Jacob’s story teaches us something unexpected about how we love others.

Laban’s “love” for Jacob was conditional, self-serving, and manipulative. He only valued Jacob for what he could get from him. And if we’re honest, we can do the same thing.

• We love people when they’re useful to us.
• We hold on to relationships because of what they give us, rather than valuing the people themselves.
• We fight to control outcomes instead of trusting God’s plan.

But love—real, Christlike love—doesn’t manipulate. It doesn’t grasp for control. It doesn’t use people as tools for personal gain. Love trusts. Love releases. Love rests in God’s timing.

Where Do You Need to Trust God Today?

So let’s ask ourselves:

• Are we using people, or truly loving them?
• Are we trusting God’s provision, or constantly scheming to secure our future?
• Are we willing to release control and love others freely, even when there’s nothing in it for us?

God is the God of Reversals—not just in Jacob’s life, but in ours too. He takes broken relationships, unfair situations, and impossible odds, and He turns them into something beautiful.

The more we trust His providence, the more we are free to love more and more—without fear, without manipulation, and without needing to control the outcome.

Let’s be people who love like that.