Esau traded his birthright, his future, his destiny for a bowl of soup. In a very real sense, that is what Adam and Eve did. “The tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her.”
They traded freedom for bondage.
I have had the privilege of doing some ministry in India, the home of over a million gods. Every Hindu home has a shrine with some little gods. In the West, we look down our noses at people who worship idols. What we fail to realize, however, is that people worship idols because they worked at least once.
Someone prayed to an idol and it rained.
A couple prayed to an idol and the woman got pregnant.
In my capacity as a police officer, I often dealt with crack cocaine addicts. I once asked a young woman how she got hooked. She said, “The first time was incredible! It was the greatest high I have ever experienced. After that, you are trying to recreate that first experience and you never quite get there.” Like the idol, crack cocaine worked once.
I think the challenge for us as believers is to hold on to what we can’t see. Everyday, we are tempted to trade our inheritance away for what we can see and feel. We have been promised a birthright as children of God, yet we cannot see Him. This is what the walk of faith is all about. As we grow in our relationship with Him, we begin to grasp what He has in store for us. As Paul said, “…the things we cannot see will last forever.”
How do you resist the pull to trade away your inheritance?
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