Date : Wednesday, 23rd Dec 1999

THEME :LIVING FOR THE MOMENT 

Genesis 25:29-34

The Character ESAU  in Genesis

- A person filled with choices;
he must have regret bitterly.

-appears as a person  who found it hard  to consider consequences,reacting to the need of the moment  without realizing what he was giving up to meet that need.

-Trading his birthright for a bowl of stew was the clearest example of this weakness .

Sometimes; in real life , we may  be  like Esau . We are sometime willingly to trade for things we want !Sometimes we  find yourself at time willingly to negotiate anything for what we feel we  need now . Do your family , spouse , integrity .body or soul  get included in this deal Do you sometimes feel  that important parts of your life has escaped  while you  were grabbing something  else ?

If so , your initial response , like Esau 's , may be deep anger . In itself ,that isn't wrong , as long as you direct  the energy  of that anger towards  a solution and not  toward yourself or other as the case of the problem .you're greatest need is to find a focal pt other than what I need now . The only focal  pt is God . A relationship with God  will not give only  an until are purpose or your life ;It will also  be a daily guideline for living . 


In this story , we see clearly that  Esau trade  his birthright . It show that he had no regard for his birthright . He traded  the lasting benefits of his birthright for the immediate pleasure of  food . 

Esau  had also exaggerated his hunger ," I am about to die ," he said . This thought made his choice more easier because  if  he was starving ,what good was  inheritance ? The pressure of the moment  distorted his  perspective  and made his decision seem urgent .

Bible application in life :

We seen clearly at that he had acted impulsive , satisfying  his immediate desire without pausing to think to consider  the long range consequences . of what he is about to do .

Sometimes , we fall into the trap . When we see something we want, our impulse is to get it . At first we feel intensely satisfied and sometime  we feel powerful .because we have obtained what we  get . But immediate pleasure  often  lose sight  of the future . We can avoid  the short term satisfaction with its long range consequences before we act . 

Warning for  those in relationship :We often faced with thinking the urgency of our problems or we  must be get it  . For example , when  we feel sexual pressure, a marriage vow  seem  unimportant . Sometimes we may feel nothing else seem to matter and we lose our perspective. Getting through that short pressure filled moment is often most difficultly of overcoming a  temptation.

You may have a bad fight with your spouse . Sometimes you want to win in situation or feel like bossy over the situation  , therefore you tend to use hurtful words causing the other party or you just run away ! And you may feel you win the fight , that in the end , it brought much more insecurity and hurts in the relationship!   

- Your  Friends are scolding you ,"Chicken , Y dun you join us and  party night ? " You know there were be drinking and drugs and prostitute  . But you dun want to lose out . So  to conform to external pressure and temptation , you agree . And learn later that you had some sexual disease and  in the end you hurt your loved ones .

Those who are not in relationship :Or sometimes  you may want to be a fit in the mould of the society culture, as you see your college classmates are all dating weekdays. And you seem to be alone , and therefore , you date any person who came by your chance without considering at all .

A  High school student  who refused to turn down any single opportunity to shop or  date  or  party   even when exams are coming  or a paper is due . And  it showed in  the grades . Expelled from high school .As a result , she sacrificed a valued long term goal for a short term pleasure of a good time .  

Desiring moral purity is 1 thing , developing a strategy to achieve
it is quite another . It take both to achieve a goal

 

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The Sheepbar line is taken from  VR-Mall

Thanks  to  Yael (Billy) Biran !

Background music : BE Still My Soul .

thoughts : I think we sometimes need God to be with us , asking our heart to be stilll before God ."Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." (Psalms 46:10(NIV))