Need Some Self-Control? Devotions From Time Of Graceনমুনা

A word to impulsive people 

The reformer Martin Luther once said, “All of us are either a Jacob or an Esau.” If you know the story of those twin brothers from Genesis chapters 25-32, you realize Luther was giving us a warning, not a compliment.

Jacob was that crafty momma’s boy who used his brain to outmatch his brother’s brawn. Esau was that impulsive hunter who could kill the beasts of the field but couldn’t kill his own impatience. Yet both brothers had this in common—they were impulsive. They were not willing to wait for God’s blessing at God’s time. They cut corners. They sinned.

The New Testament warns us about this kind of behavior: “See that no one is . . . godless like Esau, who for a single meal sold his inheritance rights as the oldest son” (Hebrews 12:16). Don’t be like Esau and trade something as sacred as your character, your integrity, your clean conscience, or your spiritual inheritance for something as temporary as a bowl of soup.

The great deceiver will try to convince you that you need to sin. You need to. You can’t live without doing this or saying that. At the same time, the Spirit of Jesus (who is “the Truth”) will remind you that you can have a fulfilling, joy-saturated, good life with God, that everything is yours in Jesus Christ, your Savior. I pray you listen to the Spirit today and trust the patient path of God in a corner-cutting world.