Genesis chapter 25

29 Once when Jacob was cooking some stew, Esau came in from the open country, famished.
30 He said to Jacob, Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I'm famished! (That is why he was also called Edom.)
31 Jacob replied, First sell me your birthright.
32 Look, I am about to die, Esau said. What good is the birthright to me?
33 But Jacob said, Swear to me first. So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob.
34 Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright.

This is about settling for what you want when you want it, rather than being prepared to wait on God.

Here, Esau was so hungry, he wanted his meal immediately and was not prepared to wait. In exchange for instant access to food, immediate satisfaction of his cravings, his wants, he exchanged his birthright, the blessings that would be his as firstborn, for a bowl of stew. How often do we do that? We want something, "need" it (or we think we do), and when we don't get it from God, we go out and try to get it ourselves. It’s like I tell my children at Christmas: they may want something, but they don't necessarily need it. Our youngest son may want the latest games console, or that new game that has just been released, but he really doesn't need it.

That's probably why there is the saying that patience is a virtue (and the full version, as my family know only too well from me, is "Patience is a virtue, possess it if you can. Seldom found in woman, and never in a man!"). It takes patience to wait on God and in this fast paced world, we are used to living fast, getting immediate access to whatever we want, we are always busy, always looking for the next job, the next thing to do, and have very little time to stop and wait. That's one of the reasons why I like to go out at the weekend with my children, because it gives me time to stop and listen, to look at the world God has created and to give him the thanks and the praise , to get some rest and some time away from the computer, and to spend much needed time with my boys and girl.

But in the west, life is one big jumble at times, rushing here there and everywhere and very few of us have time to just sit and wait on God. We want everything instantly, and when our prayers don't get answered, we try and sort everything out ourselves. But just because we don't get an immediate answer to our prayers doesn't mean God hasn't heard us, or is ignoring us. Sometimes, the answer is "yes", other times we are told to wait, or we might be told the answer is "no", or "yes but not just yet". God knows what we want, and He also knows what we need, and the two are not necessarily the same. But one thing we can be sure of is that God always answers our prayers. And we need to make sure we don't exchange the future blessings of God for immediate gratification.

Genesis Chapter 24

7 The Lord, the God of heaven, who brought me out of my father's household and my native land and who spoke to me and promised me on oath, saying, 'To your offspring I will give this land'— he will send his angel before you so that you can get a wife for my son from there.

This is another chapter all about trusting God, because here Abraham does not want his son, Isaac, to marry a local Canaanite woman, but instead would rather she marry one of his family. So he asks God what to do about the matter, although it doesn't actually say this in this chapter but I don't believe that Abraham would have taken this action without asking God first.

How many of us would do this - stop and ask God first before taking any major decision regarding our job and career, a house purchase, marriage, children? It is so easy just to pay lip service to God, to go through the formalities, the ritual, rather than actually trust God for each and every thing we do. But Abraham is an example here of a great man of faith, someone who wants the best for his child (don't we all?) and he seeks God's advice and guidance, he asks God what to do and then he does what God says. He doesn't dismiss what God has said, or tell himself that he misheard, that God really didn't say what he thought he said. He listens and obeys, and he tells his servant exactly what to do.

The servant listens to his master, Abraham, and does exactly what is told, and then he too prays to God for guidance. He asks God to have one of the girls draw water for both him and his camels, and Rebekah is the one who does this.

It is about trusting God and about giving God the thanks and praise, because what does the servant do after meeting Rebekah? He gives praise to God. It is easy to take what God gives and then forget to give the thanks and praise. But we should thank God, give Him the praise for the healing, the provisions, the daily help, whatever it may be. In our house, we have 2 words that have to be said: "Please" when asking, and "thank you" after receiving. There are many times when I will not give one of my children what they are asking for until they say the word "please"! Yet God himself does not withhold anything from us even though at times we, I, can appear to be so ungrateful.