Daily Devotional--12/21/09

Genesis 4:6-12

Crouching at Your Door

⁶ Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? ⁷ If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."

⁸ Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let's go out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him.

⁹ Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?"
"I don't know," he replied. "Am I my brother's keeper?"

¹⁰ The LORD said, "What have you done? Listen! Your brother's blood cries out to me from the ground. ¹¹ Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand. ¹² When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth."

These verses tell us of Cain's anger when Abel's sacrifice was accepted and his was not. Cain continued to harbor resentment and eventually killed his brother.

• In verse 6, what did God tell Cain to do? What does this tell us about the source of our anger?
• What did God tell Cain about the results of not doing what is right?
• How do you handle anger? Do you continue to cultivate and nurture your anger? Do you rehearse the story of your anger over and over?