DAY 6: GOD CHOSE ABEL

 THE RHEMA WORD FOR TODAY

(A DAILY DEVOTIONAL WITH PREACHER SAM)

 

TOPIC: GOD CHOSE ABEL

DATE: 6 SEPTEMBER, 2020

BIBLE READING: GENESIS 4:1-16

MEDITATION/MEMORY VERSE: HEBREWS 11:4 (MSG)

By an act of faith, Abel brought a better sacrifice to God than Cain. It was what he believed, not what he brought, that made the difference. That’s what God noticed and approved as righteous. After all these centuries, that belief continues to catch our notice.

 

Last year, we focused at this case study in the dimension of TRUE WORSHIP. But today, we are focusing at one of the other dimensions we can get from here- the dimension on CHOSEN.

Cain and Abel can be taken as the two sets of people we have in our world today. One who trusts God for direction and the other who trusts in themselves in pride.

From our Bible reading, we see that God first of all chose (and accepted) Abel before choosing his sacrifice. He chooses those who are ready to be a yielded vessel; ready to trust him for direction.

How do we know that Cain did not trust God for direction? Our verse for meditation gave us a clue ‘… It was what he [Abel] believed, not what he brought, that made the difference…’ Abel believed God for direction- a trait of a yielded vessel. Cain did not act by faith, he trusted in his ability; everyone chosen by God must learn this.

The Message Bible also puts Romans 12:1, 2 this way;

So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life- your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life- and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognise what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

 

So presenting your bodies as a living sacrifice means allowing God to help you in your everyday life- that’s yieldedness.

That’s what King Solomon also meant in Proverbs 3:5, 6

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.

(NKJV)

 

All means all; not some. ‘In all your ways acknowledge Him…’ The Message Bible puts that as ‘Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go…’ And is that not what Abel did? He acted by faith; ‘So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing the word of God.’ (Rom. 10:17 NKJV).

Anyone who stays with (yield to) God, will be chosen by Him. And anyone chosen by Him will find purpose in Him. And anyone who finds His purpose in Him, will be directed by Him on how to achieve it. (Rom. 8:29, 30).

 

DECLARATION: O LORD! HELP ME IN ALL WAYS TO ACKNOWLEDGE YOU, AND NOT TRUST IN MY OWN UNDERSTANDING IN PRIDE, SO THAT I WILL BE CHOSEN FOR YOUR PURPOSE.

 

FURTHER STUDY: PROVERBS 3