Exchanged birthright

The moment we begin to justify sin in our lives is the moment we need most to turn back to what God says about each of us. We were born to do wrong - sinners even before we left our mother's womb. Born with the 'birthright' to sin. We aren't born without a will, but rather with a will that is oftentimes opposed to the will of our Creator. As we begin to develop, we use that 'will' to get what we want. As I have said in the past, we don't need to be told to be selfish, self-centered, or self-directed. It comes quite naturally to want all the toys, attention, and permission to do whatever we want!

I was born to do wrong, a sinner before I left my mother’s womb. You want me to be completely loyal,
so put true wisdom deep inside of me. Remove my sin and make me pure. Wash me until I am whiter than snow! (Psalm 51:5-7)

If we have this 'birthright' of being born sinners, how do we overcome sin? There has to be an exchange of nature - our nature for the nature of Christ placed deep within our souls, spirits, and hearts. God relishes the moment we realize our need for his grace - for the removal of sin and the desire to be made pure before him. When we cry out for grace, his response is to lavish it - not in limited quantities, but in overwhelming 'quantity'. He is generous in grace - a gift we will never find anywhere else. As our psalmist cries out, he reminds God that he needs God's wisdom, not just in bits and pieces, but in ways that will affect him at the core of his being. Maybe we have been content with bits and pieces of God's wisdom in our lives, but the more we realize our 'bent' toward compromise in our life, the more we will recognize we need more than just dribs and drabs of his grace and wisdom! We need to only ask - he does the washing. We need only to cry out - he fills the void deep within our spirit that was made for him, and him alone.

Complete loyalty is something most of us yearn for in our walk with Jesus. Yet, sadly, we all seem to struggle with this on occasion, don't we? We get our eyes off of him, placing them squarely back on us, what matters to us, what will make us feel good, or what will fulfill some plan we have concocted in our finite minds. Then, when things seem to be failing with those choices, we find ourselves crying out once more. Someone once asked me if I thought God ever got tired of our ups and downs in this faith walk. I know he is disappointed when we fall into sin, giving into temptation in our lives, but his grace is never far away. His love never wanes. His hand never stops reaching. We may not realize the intensity of his love, the faithfulness of his grace, or the depths of his wisdom, but it is there even when we don't realize we need it! We may not realize we need to exchange one 'birthright' for another, but he does and the way has already been prepared for that to happen. We need only ask! Just sayin!