How do we follow him? We see two great issues before us. First we see our sin that is much worse than we thought it was, much harder to shake, much more invasive than we feared. Then we see the grace that is ours. Grace which is greater than all our sin. Grace which promises to carry us beyond the miseries of this world, and make us instead partakers of glory. How?
Instead of running from or denying our sin, we turn to face them. Listen to the words of Isaac:
Gen 28: 3 God Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply you, that you may become a company of peoples. 4 May he give the blessing of Abraham to you and to your offspring with you, that you may take possession of the land of your sojournings that God gave to Abraham!”
What was Isaac saying? He was admitting that everything he had done and said up till this point was wrong. He had set his heart of Esau, and tried to give Esau the full blessing of Abraham, but now he was ready to submit to revealed will of God.
He embraced his sin in front of the very persons he had hurt the most by it, and he recanted. How humiliating? Wouldn’t have just been easier to go and find new friends and live a different way for them?
This step is the one most AA participants never get past. Going to the people your sins have actually affected, and repenting to them, listening to how you have hurt them, and living differently before them.
Have you ignored the realities of your family so you could maintain appearances?
Have you avoided your family so that you could stay in a world of your own control?
Can you repent? Or do you still believe you are better than the people you sin against?
How can you do that? How could Isaac do that? By believing God’s promises. He believed the blessing he would receive more than made up for the face he would lose.
It wasn’t as hard as it sounds. What had his sin gotten him? What has your sin gotten you?
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