40|50 Project: 40 Days To Heal A Nation’s Racial DivideSample

Day 17: Our Brother’s Keeper

“Where is Abel your brother?” God asks Cain.

 “I do not know.” Cain replies. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” 

“What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground.”

In addition to God holding us accountable for our national and familial sins, He holds us accountable for our personal sin. Cain is unrepentant in murdering his brother Abel when God gives him the opportunity to come clean. Thus, Cain is punished and the ground no longer yields its fruit to him. He suffers the consequences of his actions.

One of the saddest Scriptures is Genesis 4:16, “Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.” Cain’s non-remorse leads him out of the presence of the Lord and into a life of rejection and wandering. What if Cain had confessed his sin to God and asked for forgiveness? What if we confess our sins to God and ask for forgiveness?  

PRAYER

Lord, we will not allow sin to lead us away from Your presence. We repent for our personal sin and any way that we have not been our brothers’ and sisters’ keeper. Please forgive us and cleanse us. We come out of agreement with jealousy, anger, bitterness, and anything that would make us want to harm another human being, in Jesus’s Name, Amen.