Doing Well … or Not.

SCRIPTURE:  God spoke to Cain: “Why this tantrum? Why the sulking? If you do well, won’t you be accepted? And if you don’t do well, sin is lying in wait for you, ready to pounce; it’s out to get you, you’ve got to master it.” Genesis 4:7 MSG

THOUGHT: It seems I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about choices lately. That stat in Friday’s devo last week about the average American making up to 35,000 decisions a day kind of stunned me. All those choices between “doing well” and “not doing well.” Were it not for grace, all of life would boil down to an accumulation of my decisions, good and bad; made in pride or made under the tutelage of my Father in heaven. And, even with grace, the fruit of all my decisions doesn’t please me. I see too many places where sin has pounced; too many ways I have yet to master it.

Cain didn’t really like the fact that God was in control of acceptance or rejection of his offering. I’m sure he excelled in his farming and worked hard at those crops he brought to the Lord. This was the fruit of his labor! In his mind, he should be able to bring to God was was natural or easy for him, what he was proud of rather than what God had asked of him.

But that’s not the way it works. Doing what God has asked us to is the way toward freedom from any other master – our surrender is acknowledgement that he has good reasons for what he asks, and ultimate ownership of the lives we say we have given him. No tantrums. No sulking.

It’s not really that complicated, is it? It’s just hard. And daily. Sometimes 35,000 times daily.

PRAYER: Oh God, forgive me for my slowness in giving you what you’ve asked for. I can make my life far more complicated by entertaining all my options rather than yours.