Genesis 4 begins by telling us that Adam had sexual relations with his wife, Eve, and she became pregnant. Her first son is Cain, and Genesis 4:1 tells us that she said, “With the LORD’s help, I have produced a man!” Later on, she gave birth to another boy, Abel. When both grew into adulthood, Abel became a shepherd, and Cain became a farmer, cultivating the ground. The narrative takes shape as God immediately shares with us the kind of heart that both men possess. In Matthew 12:35, Jesus Christ gives us the measuring spoon that aids our understanding of this. He tells us that the heart has producing capability. He said a good person produces good deeds from a heart that stores good things, and an evil person produces evil deeds from a heart that stores evil things. Cain and Abel are the poster children for two very different kinds of hearts.
We can’t afford to sleep on the reality that the pivotal occurrence in the lives of these men was the gift they offered to God. Giving and receiving is a law! It is how our Heavenly Father designed things to work in the universe. Everything from the least to the greatest is a continual cycle of giving and receiving. It is the law upon which the foundation of expansion and increase is fostered. It works very much like the animation of a snow ball. As it rolls down an incline in the snow, the faster it goes, the larger it becomes. In like manner, the more we give, the more we expand. Again, this is law. Jesus Christ said in Luke 6:38(NLT), “Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full—pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap. The amount you give will determine the amount you get back.”
God doesn’t want us giving out the wrong things, because He doesn’t want us getting the wrong things back. He doesn’t want us expanding in the wrong things, because expanding in the wrong things means that we are becoming heavier with darkness and sin. The gravitational pull of sin’s weight draws us down towards hell. Jesus Christ said in John 8:12(NLT), “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” God wants us to expand in the light of Christ, so that we travel through this journey, not boggled down with weight, but with lightness that comes from the love and light of Christ!
Genesis 4 tells us that both Cain and Abel produced things. And as with the law of giving and receiving that God established, they were to offer back to Heavenly Father something of which He could then continue this cycle of increase. Heavenly Father is a God of order. There is no circumventing His laws. He has designed things according to His divine sovereignty, holiness, and perfection. The way that you and I honor His divinity is through a heart that seeks to offer Him our best. Romans 12:1 tells us to give the totality of our beings to God because of all He’s done for us. It tells us to let them be a living and holy sacrifice, the kind He will find acceptable, because this is the very least we can do.
Cain’s offering to God was not acceptable. It was not his best. He offered some of his crops, but the aroma of the intent of Cain’s heart spoiled his gift. We must be clear that God doesn’t need anything from us to be as magnificent as He is. He allows us to give to Him as a way to open a channel for Him to pour blessings back into our lives. Our offering to God must represent an acknowledgement on our parts that we understand who He is, that He is glorious and deserving of our best. As a sacrifice for the remission of our sins, Heavenly Father gave His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. This is the best that can be given. God expects us to be grateful for this gift, and to learn about Him through Jesus Christ, so that His love will fill our hearts. When this happens, we will have a heart like Abel, and we will always seek to give God our very best. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“Give God Your Best”, written by JMack, theChristianMan.com© 2019. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.