TODAY’S DEVOTION (WEDNESDAY 16TH OCTOBER 2024)
“So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”
Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?”
He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.
So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.”
And Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear! Genesis 4:6-13 NKJV
WELCOME TO THE 290TH DAY OF OUR YEAR OF IMPACT.
Today the LORD will be refreshing our minds on what the Bible teaches on God’s mercy. Yes. God’s mercy.
I consider God’s mercies to be the most important treasure of His kingdom. Among other exploits of God’s mercies, fulfilling our days and ending up in Heaven is a product of God’s mercy, and nothing else.
To start with, it is important to reaffirm that, God’s Mercy is a Seed! This is one Biblical concept that was first published few years back on this platform.
From the book of genesis to revelation, if you read the Bible with its author by your side, you will discover that God’s mercy is a seed, as well as a need, but it’s more of a seed than a need.
If you see God’s mercy just as a need, you may not make proper use of it. In fact, your selfishness will blind fold you to it. People who abuse God’s mercies or sometimes become bitter at Him when the consequences of not making proper use of it hit them, are people who see God’s mercy as a need.
Those who see God’s mercy merely as a need that takes care of their pleas to God for help, their escape from the judgment of sin, or a catalyst of forgiveness of sins, are running with half revelation of God’s mercies, hence not making proper use of it.
But those who see God’s mercies as a seed make the best use of it.
For instance, if Cain had known that God’s Mercy is a seed, instead of just a need, he would have made a good use of it and raise a seed of righteousness on the face of the earth instead of the seed he raised.
People who see God’s mercy as a need always repeat the error of Cain. They have a dangerous pride that tells GOD, “my punishment is more than I can bear,” instead of humbling themselves to accept divine chastisement.
Many do not know that the people God regretted creating in Genesis Chapter six, were the offspring of Cain. God will always regret creating people who are sold out to do all manner of wickedness on the face of the earth.
If you want to share in that kind of spiritual heritage, then make their footsteps your pathways. Follow the footsteps of their ancestor, Cain. If he had seen God’s mercy as a seed and made use of it when it was available to him, his lineage would have escaped God’s judgment.
Friend, God’s mercy is a seed not necessarily a need! Even the offspring of Cain that were caught up in the judgment of the flood of Noah, received a deposit of God’s Mercy.
BUT BECAUSE THEY DID NOT SEE IT AS A SEED, THEY COULD NOT MAKE USE OF IT.
In fact, they did not even see it as a need, consequently, none of them made use of it to escape judgment.
If you do not see God’s mercy as a seed, you will never be saved from what GOD sent it to save you from. At least if you can’t see it as a seed and make the best use of it, see it as a need and turn to the LORD.
At this point, let’s back track a little and look at the life of Cain again. Our devotional text presents the story of a man who sinned against God by violating offering principles of that time; acts of worship that mirrors the first coming of the LORD.
He never saw God’s mercy as a seed for righteousness and peace. That is the perspective that helps us understand that whatever the LORD does to us is in itself an act of mercy. It is who GOD is merciful to, that He rejects in their lives what may not be right in His sight.
But those who do not see well, will misinterpret everything and plunge farer away from Him like Cain did. They will not see His rejection or chastisement as a seed of mercy from His throne, looking for a harvest in their lives.
Friend, if God forbids us from doing anything in time, it is to arrest our senses and make sure we do not fall into condemnation in eternity. What He does to us in time, is to help us to end well in eternity.
So, when God rejected the offering of Cain, it was an act of mercy.
The quicker we come to terms with such rejections from the LORD, the better. When mercy say no sometimes, you could be made to fail just to bring your pride down, and give you a permanent resting place on the threshing floor of humility, and a glorious outcome.
Now when it comes to rejecting of a man’s offering, many think that kind of kingdom protocol no longer exists in our age and time.
Greed has shut down the senses of most preachers. I remember how shocked a preacher was, the first time he heard that I rejected an offering from someone because the LORD will not let me take it. He said I was heretic. He ordered the person to bring the money to him.
WE ALL THINK THAT GOD HAS CHANGED HIS STANDARDS.
Due to the crave for the materialistic gospel branded prosperity gospel, many no longer know that GOD still reject offerings today.
That is why there are people God will reject their offerings in a church service and yet they will not even know. The pastor will accept it, but GOD will reject it.
Only God knows the amount of divinely rejected offerings that have been accepted by us preachers. Sadly, Cain was more sensitive in that regards than many of us today. He could tell that GOD rejected His offering.
Like I stated earlier, that was an act of divine mercy.
In fact, God was so merciful to Him that He told him why His offering was rejected. But because he did not treat mercy as a seed, instead of making use of the grace of the LORD, he moved further into sin. He killed his brother whose offering was accepted. He killed who God gave him to keep.
I have said, if we are not our brother’s keepers, we will be our brother’s killers.
Cain’s primary assignment was for him to be his brother’s keeper, not his brother’s killer. Many of us do not know that our first assignment to those the LORD has given us, as brothers or sisters, either in Christ or by blood, is to keep and not kill them.
But the fall down and die gospel stirs us to kill them. That is why we find our lives scattering in different directions like Cain’s. You find so many Christians suffering for asking God to kill their blood relatives. The Bible says,
Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?”
He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground.
I repeat again, if we are not our brother’s keepers, one day we will be our brother’s killers! There can be no middle ground in this assignment from the LORD.
Cain failed in his assignment because of anger out of control. There is nothing wrong with getting angry, but there is everything wrong when it gets out of control.
BUT WE ARE LOOKING AT MAKING GOOD USE OF GOD’S MERCY HERE!
A generation that fail to make use of God’s mercy, will eventually be moving from sin to sin, from wickedness to wickedness, and sometimes it will be doing so praying for God’s mercies and forgiveness on its knees.
Praying for God’s mercy, while doing things that attracts Judgment, is a mockery; it tantamount to sitting on the seat of mockers. You cannot live a blessed life by God’s definition, if you live your Christian life that way.
If you really understand the justice system of GOD, you will realize that kind of life has a way of bringing someone to sudden destruction.
When Cain was chastised by the LORD with a rejection of His offering, he did not make use of God’s mercy that manifested; it manifested as a divine rebuke. Rather, he went ahead to kill his brother and the blood of his brother began to cry against him from the ground.
When mercy came again to reveal to him the consequences of his sins, so that he could turn to the LORD in repentance, his response became more terrible. He again did not make use of it to repent but rather did what many of us do!
As earlier stated, he said to God, “my punishment is greater than I can bear!”
In other words, he was saying to GOD “I have a right to your mercy irrespective of what I may have done!” what arrogance! That is the worst way to relate to GOD. Friend, by virtue of the fall, none of us have a right to God’s mercy; none of us deserve it.
Until we repent from our sins and wickedness, we will come under judgment of sudden destruction.
Like earlier shared, Cain’s offspring will later grow up destroying all moral principles on the face of the earth, and filling the heart of GOD with so much pain, that would force the first global judgment on sin and wickedness from the wine press of His fury to take place.
Mercy is a seed not just a need! You must know why God is giving it to you else you suffer for not knowing.
If GOD sow it into our lives, and we do not allow a harvest of repentance to spring up from us, we will never escape what GOD seeded it into our lives to save us from. We will miss the blessing and come under the curse.
Sometimes God will seed mercy into our lives to save us from earthly perils like premature death, natural disasters, demonic attacks, lack or poverty, sudden destructions, unknown enemies, sicknesses or diseases.
Other times He will seed it into our lives to save us from eternal perils like an eternal life in hell fire. We must get the message trapped in every act of mercy we receive from the LORD.
Finally, I want to let us know that we are in the days of God’s mercy – that is as many of us that are alive. Very soon the curtain will close on each and every one of us, and mercy will be over. We will come face to face with GOD to answer before HIM.
What God will be looking at when we appear before Him, will be the totality of what we used His mercies to do while alive in our present bodies.
LET THIS SCRIPTURE BE AN ADDITIONAL MEDITATION FOR YOU TODAY!
“Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him.
For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences.” 2 Corinthians 5:9-11 NKJV