It’s Jacob, not Esau whom God wants to bless

‘But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.’ – 1 John 1:7 (NIV)

Just imagine Jacob clad with goatskin and saying to his father; ‘I am Esau, your firstborn.’ (Gen. 27:9). His conscience must have been crying; ‘Liar! Pretender!’  Jacob must have had to still his conscience for he felt he had to pretend to be Esau to get his father’s blessing.

How often we pretend to be someone we are not. We believe there is no way that we are going to get to where we ought to be if we do not wear that mask. But oh! how it hurts our souls to live a lie. It confuses our identity. It clouds our fellowship with God and man.  It puts us in that prison where we have to continue living a lie just to measure up. Yet we feel it is expedient to carry on this façade if we are to get where we ought to be. We are afraid that if people see us as we really are they may not accept us and so hinder us from getting to where we should.

Now let me show you something. Jacob was so wrong! He did not need to be Esau for God to bless him. All he needed to be was himself, for it was not Esau God wanted to bless but Jacob! Right from the womb, the blessing had been ordained by God for Jacob and not Esau. He didn’t need to lie to get it. Think of how much misery and the years of pain Jacob would have saved himself by just being Jacob to his father.

Now let this liberating truth sink in – It is not the person you are pretending to be that God wants to bless, it is you! You can take off that mask now for it is you whom God wants to bless. It is you he wants – with all your shortcoming and inadequacies. Think of how much pain we will save ourselves from by just being ourselves. I am not talking of indulging ourselves but being transparent – walking in the light with God and man even as you press on towards Christlikeness.

Stop trying to be Esau. Take off the mask and be willing for God and men to know you for who you are. As you walk in transparency before God and men, God will bless you. He will come close to you and  transform you from the inside out. He will use you and enlarge your coast. No man will be able to stop you from getting to where you ought to be and you will get there as a transformed real person not a deformed fake person. No one can stop the blessing God has for you. No one can take away your blessing if you will just throw away your mask.