You gave up all that for some SOUP?!!!???!!!!

Genesis 25:34 Then Jacob gave Esau bread and food. Esau ate and drank and then left. So Esau showed that he did not care about his rights as the firstborn son. (easy to read version)

Esau got up every day and hunted in the field. I’m sure this was not the first time he came home hungry. This day, he was so hungry that he decided it was worth his entire inheritance to get something to eat. Because he didn’t have anything else available to eat he sacrificed something of far more value to satisfy a temporary need. Been there, done that. Picture it: 5:30pm, long day at work, EVERYBODY done got on your nerves. You’ve got to get to bible study by 6:30pm (which you really don’t want to do anyway, but they done called you out too many times for missing). AND you hungry. You didn’t pack your food. You didn’t prepare anything and you certainly don’t feel like cooking now. What are you going to do? You think, “I worked all day and I don’t want no doggone salad!”…the drive thru is calling your name. Burgers and fries it is…o yeah and a diet coke. 

Do you care about your birthright? God promised us 120 years. I can’t believe that Esau actually thought the ramifications of his actions all the way through. “Surely, this cup o’ red bean soup is not going to cost me an inheritance?” he may have rationalized. “Surely, one burger and some fries are not going to sabotage my goals and compromise my health?” we may rationalize. Truth be told, it probably won’t if its just one time – but it can. Just like we don’t know which cigarette gives us the cancer, we really don’t know which glob of fat clogs up our arteries. Planning and preparing for your energy needs (food) is a part of your daily regimen that can not be omitted.

We have to choose to be responsible for our actions. We have to surrender ourselves to God and ask Him to empower us with diligence. The flesh is stronger when we constantly give in to it. But when we put it under subjection it must obey. It is not, however, a passive activity. It’s not a ‘side job’. It has to be a daily decision, sometimes even an hourly decision.

This weekend is 4th of July. It’s usually marked with a weekend full of fireworks, eating, cookouts and drinking. Focusing on our goals is more difficult when everything is centralized around food. Have a plan before you head out. Don’t go anywhere hungry. Be prepared, drink lots of water, get your exercise in early and be sociable. Make your focus on the people not the food.

Charlotte Exercise
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Prayer: God today is your day. I surrender my will to you. I thank you for going before me and preparing the way. I thank you for having endured everything that I will ever have to endure. I thank you for my freedom, my independence, my victory through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Amen!!