Genesis 25:29–34

"One day when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau arrived home from the wilderness exhausted and hungry. Esau said to Jacob, 'I'm starved! Give me some of that red stew!' (This is how Esau got his other name, Edom, which means 'red.')

'All right,' Jacob replied, 'but trade me your rights as the firstborn son.'

'Look, I'm dying of starvation!' said Esau. 'What good is my birthright to me now?'

But Jacob said, 'First you must swear that your birthright is mine.' So Esau swore an oath, thereby selling all his rights as the firstborn to his brother, Jacob.

Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and lentil stew. Esau ate the meal, then got up and left. He showed contempt for his rights as the firstborn."

 

Jacob apparently wanted the firstborn's rights and was looking for a way to get it. He seized his opportunity when he saw that Esau would do anything for some food right now. Esau had his eyes only on the now; Jacob looked to the future. Esau lost, Jacob won. Esau never even seemed to understand what he'd just done. But Jacob would remember. Are your decisions made with an eye to what has lasting value, or only to temporary pleasure?

John 17:15

"'I'm not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one.'"

 

If you're a parent, you can adapt Jesus' prayer for his disciples to your own prayers for your children. You may feel a desire to take them out of the world, but Jesus here teaches that the truer-to-reality request is that God himself would keep them safe from the evil one. Notice how this actually leads to more peace: Rather than leaning on your own attempts to keep the world from your children, you entrust them to God's care. You ask and trust God to take care of them. Your role is to pray, not to shelter

John 14:31

"'I will do what the Father requires of me, so that the world will know that I love the Father. Come, let's be going.'"

In this chapter, Jesus repeats often that his goal is to please the Father, to show his love for his Father. The love and obedience Jesus displayed toward his Father is a model for the love and obedience we are to show Jesus. Do you have this kind of complete devotion to Jesus, this great desire to obey, even if it leads to terrible suffering, as it did for Jesus? Do you share his complete trust that if you do suffer, it will be both necessary and worthwhile because of what God will do through it?