The Herald (Zimbabwe)

Becoming a better person

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Psalm 51 vs 10; “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.”

WHILE reading a devotion, I came across the story of Cain and Abel; what a tragic story of malice and misplaced human ambition. A jealous streak led to death and the first recorded case of murder.

It’s interestin­g, but Cain and Abel could be you and I, our relationsh­ips are defined by similar circumstan­ces.

There are people we admire to an extent that our desire to be them can lead to a heavy heart that’s loaded with malice and hatred.

The total manifestat­ion of these actions can be nothing less than pure and sheer evil. How many times has our desire to be the next person driven us to thoughts that are less than pleasant? What leads a person to being jealous, to being of a dispositio­n than can only seek to harm rather than love?

Ultimately Cain paid the ultimate price for the pleasing offerings he presented to the Lord. Instead of following in the footsteps of his brother and presenting a perfect sacrifice to the Lord, Abel decided that to eliminate would be the only recourse to deal with the problem.

A number of scenarios could have occurred, one being that he could have simply asked his brother for assistance and guidance.

How many times do we shy away from asking for help and rather decide to resort to means that are untoward to achieve our objective? A set of properly constructe­d words, governed by a meek heart that is prayerful, is the difference between a course of action that is pleasing to the Lord and one that is not.

When we resort to being human and take matters in our hands, how many times do we run away from the reality of the course of action we took?

We smile, pretend and sweep things under the carpet rather than seek the Lord in prayer asking for forgivenes­s whilst also engaging those that we have wronged.

Everything boils down to choices, the paths that we choose are dependent on where we have chosen to place our hearts.

Be Blessed.

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