Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - What Matters Most in Your Life? | Torah | Genesis 26:34-27:46

Episode Date: March 8, 2022

Is following Jesus your biggest priority? What's most important in your family? What do you want most in your own life and in your kids' lives? In today's episode, Tanya looks at Genesis 26:34-27:46 to discuss the importance of connecting as a family about Jesus. What are you connecting with your family about? Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here. Passages: Genesis 26:34-27:46 Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life and the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmeth. Right now, we're going through the first book of the Bible, Genesis. How many of you are posting your Wordal score on Twitter and Facebook? I see people more connected right now on this word puzzle than any other thing out there. I think people who have completely different ideas and priorities about some of our biggest issues in the world could come together unified around this game.

I see people that have absolutely nothing in common sharing the love of this daily word puzzle. My friends are texting each other screenshots of their score. My kids are playing it and checking in with each other over dinner about how many tries it took that day. What if we got that excited about the gospel? What if we posted on Twitter about how many tries out of six it took for someone we meet with to understand the gospel? What if we texted our friends about someone we just prayed with? What if we celebrated over social media every time God convicted us or showed us his grace. Well, that might kind of annoying and frankly, it's just weird. But what if we at least did

this in our families, in our homes? What if we connected around the gospel with as much passion as we connect around something like Wordle or the Chiefs or rec soccer? Do we let good things, trendy things, things that might not and probably won't last a year and certainly not their entire childhood, become the things that are more important in our family than the good news of Jesus? People in the Bible like Peter and James and Paul, they didn't do it perfectly, but they ultimately gave up their lives for the sake of the gospel. And to be honest, we aren't willing sometimes to give up our Sunday mornings. We aren't willing to make taking our kids to church a priority over sleep or a clean house and kids sports and a less crowded grocery store.

and I'm speaking about myself. We aren't willing to give up ourselves, our time, our relationship with our kids, our comfort, our insecurities, to share and live out the gospel with our kids, to make following Jesus the main thing that unifies our family and the priority for our kids. We want them to know the gospel, but we also want them to know how to play an instrument. and how to multiply fractions and how to play volleyball. So what do we want most? Do we live in a way that shows the main thing is the main thing? Is the way we live with our kids true about what we say we want for them? Our passage today takes us into the living room of Isaac and Rebecca in Genesis 26 and 27,

where old, almost blind Isaac is trying to make sure the covenant blessing is passed down to his oldest son before he dies. The problem is that Esau, the oldest son, was not supposed to be the one who received the blessing. And the way the story unfolds reveals the hearts of two parents who understood the importance of passing down the blessing and two parents whose idols got in the way of doing it. Do you think we do this? Do you think our idols get in the way of what we say we want for her kids? Maybe we say we want them to follow Jesus because we know with our minds that's the only life

there really is. But our hearts get in the way. We love our kids so much. We don't want to see them hurt. So we put a bubble around them and give them what they want so they don't have to experience discomfort. Or we love them so much that we want to see them accomplish their dreams and have the opportunities we didn't have.

So we spend money we don't really have and commit time we don't. don't really have to make sure they're really, really good at something. The problem is, we don't even know if they're still going to love it by the time they get to high school. Or, what about our idol of self? Do we love ourselves so much that we let our comfort, our need for space or downtime? Do we let it get in the way of pressing on red flags in our kids' lives? Do we love our space and comfort so much that we forget that red flags don't.

go away, they just get bigger. Isaac put his parental love for his oldest son ahead of the will of God. Esau and Jacob were twins. Esau was born first, so by custom he should have been the one to receive the blessing. But when Rebecca was pregnant, God spoke in Genesis 2523. The one shall be stronger than the other. The older shall serve the younger. Rebecca certainly didn't forget it. And when she overheard Isaac talking to Esau and telling him to go out and find something good to eat so he could receive his father's blessing, Rebecca's scheming mind went to work. She knew how important the blessing was, but she didn't trust God to carry it into fruition on his own. So while Issa was out hunting, she prepared a meal and dressed her youngest son Jacob in goat skins and his brother's clothes

to trick Isaac into giving him the blessing instead. Rebecca was ruled by the idol of control. She justified manipulation and deceit to make sure the family carried on the way she thought they should. She had an idea in her mind about how and when things should happen, so she put herself in the place of God to bring his will into fruition. The idols of both parents were exposed in the way they handled this situation, and both brothers suffered. Shortly after this, Jacob left home and Rebecca probably never saw him again. and Isaac was left with a donkey of a son who didn't take God's promises seriously and kind of lived by the seat of his pants, satisfying whatever desire he had in that moment. When we want something for our kids, above and beyond what God wants for them, it's always going to unravel somewhere. I saw a tweet the other day that said, young parents write books on good parenting techniques and older parents write books on prayer.

It's pretty true, though. When our kids are little, we put them in the high chair and they stay there until we get them out. We can't make the meat, but we can keep them in a high chair. But when our kids get older, they have experiences and feelings and emotions that are their own, things that come from outside our house and our care, and we have to watch them and study them to know what they need and who or what can help them. It's hard. It's really fun, but it's hard.

We have a huge responsibility. responsibility to share our faith with them. But we don't carry the responsibility of opening their hearts to it. And thank goodness. In Wordle, you only get six tries a day. People post their number and compare how well they do. Two tries for me. Look at the evidence. My kids are perfect. Aren't you glad that's not how it works? Aren't you thankful you get more than six tries some days? Aren't you glad that a screenshot of where your kids are today doesn't reflect everything that's true about their story or about you. Aren't you glad that your kid's behavior isn't the way God evaluates them, not the way God chooses to work with them? Aren't you glad that your snapshot of your children making good choices

isn't any more relevant in God's kingdom than the snapshots of the bad ones? So what are our priorities as parents? What do we really want for our families? We can't just want our kids to receive the blessings of God. We need to want them to bend their knees to God. We want them to know and trust a God that keeps His word to do as He has promised despite all the failures and unbelief of His people. We want them to understand that God works in their lives to open their hearts and minds to his undeserved grace and unending love. Our kids are experts at looking at our lives. I bet if we ask them what makes us tick, what makes us happy or mad or sad or angry, we can learn a lot about our priorities.

What difference do you think your priority to love Jesus openly with your kids, to repent openly with your kids, to fight for faith and truth in your own life can make in their faith journey? We are called to be co-laborers for the gospel, and that's not just outside our homes, but inside. co-labors as we talk to our kids about the things we're praying about, the things we're waiting for, the things we're repenting of, talking to them about what we're learning about God, where we're holding ourselves accountable to his teaching, where we see him convicting us and leading us. But maybe you don't have kids. So where are you taking a kid with you as you follow Jesus?

We need other adults to invest in kids. We need a triangle. We need that person for those people who step into the relationship with us and our children and speak into their lives. We need people who aren't our age and not our kids' ages who can relate to them in ways that are meaningful and relevant. And we need to help each other. We need to support the kids in our small group instead of comparing them to ours and hoping we come out ahead. We need to fight for other people's kids and remind them there's a bigger story when they fall down or when the world falls down around them. I've witnessed nothing more encouraging as a parent than another adult coming alongside my kids. Another adult taking them out to ice cream and building them up when they can't see past

what happened that day. Another adult showing them what it's like to follow Jesus in college and in their 20s. This is an opportunity to have an engaged relationship with kids in our homes and our communities. And each opportunity the Lord gives us to follow him over our flesh is an act of mercy. He will use it to make us more like Jesus and to show Jesus to the next generation. In His grace, God was faithful to keep his word to Isaac and Rebecca concerning their son. God will be faithful to His Word and to His children, even when they manipulate one another and fight against His will. And ultimately, what he says will happen. He will always prevail. Does your parenting reveal your belief that God's Word is the most important?

voice in your kids' lives? Are you fighting against your flesh to want anything for them above what God wants? Are you fighting against your desire to make them into kids that follow you over kids that want to follow Jesus? If you said yes, any of those questions, feel free to pray this prayer with me or pray your own and use the words that match your heart and your needs as we end today. Lord, as I think about the life that lies ahead for my kids, I can't help but admit. that I want them to have success in the areas that matter to the world. And I want them to have financial security and relational ease. But I also know this life isn't only about what they accomplish.

It's about what you do in them. Please bless them in the way that only you can. In your grace, bring them into relationship with you, which is the greatest blessing of all. Make their lives about what Christ has done for them and not what they can accomplish. And use me and mold me as you accomplish your will. Amen.

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