Genesis 4:6-7-The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7  If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.“

I wonder if we have ever looked at the privilege of true worship, as being an opportunity to work out the many issues in our heart before God privately, before those same issues tarnish us “publicly”?

In the famous story of Cain and Abel, we see the Lord in compassion and mercy meet Cain privately.  The Lord knows his heart and his irrational response for not taking responsibility for his actions, in giving an offering not up to the standard of God in true worship.  A gracious opportunity to correct in private what was going to ruin him in “public”…(Genesis 4:5)

The reason the Lord rebukes our spiritual laziness is because He knows that unresolved issues of the heart eventually come to light, not only compromising our witness but more importantly His glory.  (Proverbs 4:23, Revelation 3:19)

The famous “prayer closet” we have coined in the Christian community takes disciplined initiative to be confronted by the Lord. To “workout our salvation”, so we don’t take our unresolved issues out on those who have nothing to do with what we’re responsible for.  Abel was an innocent bystander and true worshiper, who received the unresolved venom of Cain because he refused to take responsibility before God in private…(Matthew 6:6-15, Philippians 2:12-13)

I challenge you to consider, how much of our quarrels and discontentment with people have more to do with what we won’t take responsibility for before God?  Christ came to take on our inability to resolve sin, yet it takes real faith to continually bring our sins/issues to Christ for forgiveness/healing.  Otherwise we live like Cain, approached by God in private but ignore Him, taking out our sin on people in “public” all because we won’t truly worship…(Luke 12:1-3)

In His Love, Ld