Genesis 38:18 (NKJV)<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThen he said, \u2018What pledge shall I give you?\u2019 So she said, \u2018Your signet and cord, and your staff that is in your hand.\u2019 Then he gave them to her, and went in to her\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the sake of some fleeting moments of pleasure, Judah let go of his staff of authority and his signet of identity. He lost both his authority and his identity to partake in a selfish activity of crass pleasure. What loss! What foolishness! She gave him what he wanted, but she took what she wanted. By that exchange, he lost, and she gained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The vital lessons here are: you will always lose in any exchange you make with Satan. Even if you seem to enjoy for a fleeting moment, you will always end up with a bitter taste in your mouth. Satan is targeting your authority and identity: for this, he will offer you any pleasure of your choice. Be vigilant. Resist not just the devil, resist yourself. Resist your personal desires and aspirations that don\u2019t sync with God. Resist pleasure seeking. Resist fleeting satisfactions that have no authorization from Christ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All the greatness and progress you have achieved through Christ can be lost in a moment of carelessness. Satan knows you and wants to take what you have. Resist the trade by barter he\u2019s offering because you\u2019ll never get a good deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFather, please protect me from exchanging Your power in me and my identity in You, for something that has no real or eternal value. I don\u2019t want to lose ground and lose out just for some fleeting, temporary pleasure. I ask these, in Jesus\u2019 name. Amen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Genesis 38:18 (NKJV) \u201cThen he said, \u2018What pledge shall I give you?\u2019 So she said, \u2018Your signet and cord, and your staff that is in your hand.\u2019 Then he gave them to her, and went in to her\u2026\u201d For the sake of some fleeting moments of pleasure, Judah let go of his staff of authority […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7382,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","category-reflections-from-genesis"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/Reflections-from-Genesis.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5426"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5428,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5426\/revisions\/5428"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/restlesspilgrim.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}