I was delighted when a mutual friend gave my neighbor a Bible. But my neighbor told me she couldn't understand why God would be so unfair as to reject Cain's offering. "After all", she said, "as a farmer, he simply brought to God what he had. Did God expect him to buy a different kind of sacrifice?" Sadly, she had missed the point.
It wasn't God that didn't like vegetables. Rather, He knew that Cain's offering was masking an unrighteous attitude. Cain wasn't fully committed to God, as expressed by the fact that he wasn't living according to His ways. It's easy to worship God on the outside while stubbornly keeping territory from Him on the inside. Jude writes about outwardly religious people who use religious activities to cover the reality of their sinful lives: "Woe to them! For they have gone in the way of Cain" (Jude 11).
We can faithfully serve God, sing His praises, and give sacrificially to His work. But God doesn't want any of that without our hearts. Does the Lord take priority over our plans and dreams? Is He worth more than the sin that tempts us? When we express to Him that He is more worthy than anything or anyone else in our lives, it's an offering He won't refuse. God won't refuse a heart that is surrendered to Him.
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