Giving away your birthright

‘Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left.  So Esau despised his birthright.’ Genesis 25.34

This particular story is a tragic moment in the life of Esau, when he sold something very precious – his rights as a firstborn child and all the privileges that entailed.  It is very easy to read about him and shake our heads at his stupidity and short-sightedness, but perhaps this is a challenge to us all.

John 1.12 speaks about all of us having the right to become children of God.  God has given us this right and it is available for every one of us, but I wonder how many times we give it away?  One way we are most likely to give it up is by following our feelings.  So often we don’t feel that there is anything special about us or we don’t see any reason to believe why God should love us so much, so what happens next is that we give away the truth of who we are by following our feelings.

Paul says that the Holy Spirit is within each of us calling out these words – ‘Abba, Father!’  We spend far too much time silencing his voice and ignoring it completely, rather than catching it, listening to his words and taking them seriously.

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