“And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? And why is
thy countenance fallen? If thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto
thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him. Genesis 4:6-7 (King
James Version)
“Why are you so angry? The Lord asked him. “Why do you look
so dejected?” You will be accepted if you respond in the right way. But if you
refuse to respond correctly, then watch out! Sin is waiting to attack and
destroy you, and you must subdue it.” Genesis 4:6-7 (New Living Translation)
I started reading
Genesis again last night because I’ve been teaching it in Sunday School the
last couple of months to my 1st-3rd graders, and it’s
mostly straightforward Biblical facts, at least for the first few chapters, but
I wanted to see what would stand out to me beyond the stories I have taught the
children. You know the ones I am speaking of: God creates the world in 6 days, resting
on the 7th. He creates man in His own image and then makes a helper
for him out of one of Adam’s ribs, and they name the helper woman, and more
specifically, Eve. Then, the serpent convinces Eve to eat of the fruit of the
tree of life, and then she convinces Adam to eat some too, and God banishes
them both from the Garden of Eden and gives them a very clear set of
consequences they will suffer for their fall into sin.
As I read through
these first 3-4 chapters, it felt like recalling stories with an old
friend. They were so very familiar to
me, and when I got to the verses above, Genesis 4:6-7, they were not only
familiar, they also brought back an entire lesson in my life I had almost
forgotten about. This passage is one of
the key verses in a lesson on how to deal with depression from the Biblical
Counseling Foundation’s Self-Confrontation Bible study course, which I was
involved in completing and eventually teaching back in the late 1990’s and
early 2000’s here on the island. It was
the most intensive and enlightening Bible study I have ever completed. The
Genesis verses really stood out to me because if you just read the verses alone,
or really even in the context of the story of Cain and Able, your mind doesn’t
automatically go, “oh, this verse can help me deal with depression in my life,”
but if you look at it more in depth, it really does provide real life help for
those times in our lives when our “countenance” has fallen. The thought behind it is that Cain’s
sacrifice to the Lord was not accepted as Able’s was because his heart was not
in the right place or in other words, he didn’t give to God with the right
motive.
This reminds me
of my oldest son (the one who just turned 11) and the challenge of raising a
“tween” with all his changing moods and the start of the “you don’t understand
me” stage of his life. He is focused on himself right now and doesn’t seem to care
all that much about helping out around the house or considering anyone else,
really. I hope it’s just a phase and from
the other moms I’ve talked to, it is fairly normal, but the fact of the matter
is, when we fight about him not wanting to be more a part of the family by
doing things like voluntarily offering to help me carry in the groceries and
put them away, I’m really fighting with him about his motives. He will do his chores if I make him, but I
want to develop in him a respect for others and consideration of his family
before himself, and it’s clear when he’s only doing it because I asked him to
and not because he genuinely wants to help out. I think Cain was probably the
same way, only sacrificing the fruit of his labor because he had been taught that
he was supposed to do so and not because he really wanted to do so. Cain was upset when God didn’t accept his offering,
but the Lord offered him a simple explanation. Will you not be accepted if you
do what is best?
When we are
depressed, our countenance falls. I felt that way today…some days are just like
that. So, how do I get out of that funk? I could sit in front of the TV,
watching mindless shows and wasting away the hours, OR I could keep pushing
forward and doing my best, no matter how I feel and how my face looks. If your heart is in the right place, and you
are doing the best you can with God at the head of your life and at the center
of your heart, He will take care of the rest and lift your countenance. It’s so hard for me to really believe God can
and will change the most difficult circumstances in my life, but it certainly
doesn’t help for me to sit around and worry about it or to allow it to bring me
down. If I keep teaching my son about God and all the principles of the Bible
that make us better and help us to not give in to our sinful selfish human
nature, God will take care of the rest.
All I can do is my best.
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