I become very defensive and close minded. I either raise my voice or yell. Sometimes I even want to hit or break things. Then I might go to my room and turn my radio up loud so I can't think very well and instead listen to the music to calm down. I should listen to God and try to please Him.
Cain reacted poorly to his anger. Because God didn't accept Cain's half-hearted effort and gift but did accept Abel's gift, Cain killed his brother Abel. Cain seemed to take a shortcut but Abel fully obeyed God. In verse 7 the Lord said, "You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master."
The first step in pleasing God is to examine our motivation for doing so. Do we really want to please him, or are we going through the motions because someone told us we should.
Obedience is the second step to pleasing God. It means loving him enough to listen to what he says, then following through on what we know he tells us to do.
Through the Holy Spirit, God speaks to us as we come to him with willing hearts. He gently shows us areas in our lives that we need to examine and change according to his timetable, not someone else's.
Submitting to God's will means giving up what I want and totally giving in to what God wants as well as giving God my best instead of the least I can give.
No comments:
Post a Comment