Morning Moments

"Why are you so angry?" the LORD asked Cain. "Why do you look so dejected? You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master."

Genesis 4:6-7, NLT

How do you react when someone suggests you have done something wrong? Do you move to correct the mistake or deny that you need to correct it? After Cain's gift was rejected, God have him the chance to right his wrong and try again. But Cain refused.

The next time someone suggests you are wrong, take an honest look at yourself and choose God's way instead of Cain's. PRIDE is the most subtle of all sins and is to blame for our reactions to what we THINK others think and say.  It is the ROOT cause of uncontrolled anger in our lives.  It is the source of haughty and false humility too. It the case of Cain, as in ours, his anger was really toward God, but he vented that anger toward his brother who had absolutely nothing to do with the rejection of Cain's sacrifice by God.  The problem was in Cain's heart, not Abel's. The Bible makes it clear that murder is the result of hatred and our society with all it's abundance of counselors has yet to figure that out. It was hatred in the heart of the young man who recently killed 20 children and six adults.  It was hatred in the heart that was the basis of the Columbine killings, and on and on, As true Christians, we can "put away" these things because we have the power of the Holy Spirit within us.  It does not mean that we like everything everyone does or that we do not feel anger about certain things, but through spiritual maturity we learn why people do such things such as resenting, reacting, rebelling, rejecting, retaliating, rather than responding in grace with humility considering ourselves also lest we be tempted. When we understand that through our personal faith in Jesus Christ, we have been forgiven and accepted by God's GRACE, we can then receive and show that grace to others through our confidence in what He has done and is doing for us.  Hence, we can, by that grace, and in the power of the Holy Spirit, "put away" these things and thus in the words of Barney Fife, "Nit it in the budd" BEFORE we react.