Adam and Eve were God&#8217;s first creation in which he said it was &#8220;VERY GOOD&#8221;. He made them in his own image and placed them in the middle of paradise to live closely with him. We know they failed, but God covered them in grace with the first sacrifice and clothing made in animal skins. Then he blessed them.
You see my friends, our shame is covered by grace and we are wrapped in blessings. God doesn&#8217;t keep going over the wrong that has happened, he moves forward in blessings and the good plans he has for our future. Adam and Eve were first blessed with two sons. Cain and Abel. The first babies ever born. The first siblings. And do you know how that turned out?
I&#8217;m not sure why we feel so disappointed when we experience family struggles for ourselves &#8211; the very first family had complete dysfunction. God never promised us perfection in our families, in fact, his word gives us example after example of problems and struggles in families God has chosen and blessed. Mama, you can quit feeling sorry for yourself now &#8211; you&#8217;re not the only one who is dealing with chaos.
Cain was the oldest son and he became a keeper of the land. Abel was the youngest son and he became a keeper of sheep. Yes, they had jobs. Why? Because work is good for us! We are designed to need daily purpose. We are also designed to serve God with our best.
Genesis 4:3, &#8220;When it was time for harvest, Cain presented some of his crops as a gift to the Lord. (Notice, what did Cain give God? SOME of his crops. Circle &#8216;some&#8217;.)
Verse 4, &#8220;Abel also brought a gift &#8211; the best portions of the firstborn lambs from his flock. (What did Abel give God? The BEST portions. Circle &#8216;best&#8217;.)
So, Cain gave some of his harvest, but Abel gave the best of his harvest, and God knew the difference. He knew the heart, he knew the intent. So, here&#8217;s what happened &#8211;
Verse 5-6, &#8220;The Lord accepted Abel and his gift, but he did not accept Cain and his gift. This made Cain very angry, and he looked dejected. &#8216;Why are you so angry?&#8217; the Lord asked Cain. &#8216;Why do you look so dejected?&#8217;
The world sees comparison and jealousy for the first time. And God gives a warning.
Verse 7, &#8220;You will be accepted if you do what is right. But if you refuse to do what is right, then watch out! Sin is crouching at the door, eager to control you. But you must subdue it and be its master.&#8221;
Woah &#8211; that is a powerful warning and it still stands today. The moment you stop doing what is right, then sin tries to come in and control you. The Passion Translation says it like this, &#8220;If you refuse to do what is right, sin, the predator, is crouching in wait outside the door of your heart. It desires to have you, yet you must be its master.&#8221;
Here&#8217;s the lesson &#8211; Offering less than your best leaves an open door to the enemy. And where does the enemy attack? Your heart!
You know when you&#8217;re not giving your best. You know when you&#8217;re just checking a box. You know when you&#8217;re just punching the clock. You know when you&#8217;re going through the motions, and showing up because you have to. AND SO DOES GOD.
God didn&#8217;t accept Cain&#8217;s offering for one reason, and one reason only &#8211; it wasn&#8217;t his best. God wants our best and he&#8217;s not fooled.
But why does God want our best? Does he really need anything from us? Everything is his, and if God wants something he can either take it or he can create more in one word. He most certainly doesn&#8217;t need our best, so why does he only accept our best? Here&#8217;s why &#8211; Because God knows our best is what&#8217;s best for us. God knows the moment we start holding back and checking out, we are in danger.
When we get lazy, we leave the door to our heart cracked open. That&#8217;s how sin slips in and attacks. And it attacks the heart. It hardens our heart, turns our heart away from God and to the things of the world. It builds walls around our heart to keep others out.
This is why God asks for your best. Not because he needs your performance. Not because he needs your money, or your work, or your time. But because he knows it&#8217;s best for you to offer your best. You were designed to give him your best. And when you&#8217;re not working within your design, you&#8217;re not living your best life. When you&#8217;re not living your best life, you&#8217;re settling for less and less is what you get.
God invites Cain to recognize where he was giving less than his best and fix it. But Cain doesn&#8217;t. Here&#8217;s what he does instead &#8211; he attacks his brother Abel, and he kills him.
The very first couple with their very first children, and this is the family chaos. Yip, it&#8217;s real and now maybe your family chaos doesn&#8217;t look quite as bad.
If you want to end the chaos, the answer is to give your absolute best. God has given us the power to overcome sin. We are not helpless victims. It&#8217;s our laziness that invites sin to attack our hearts. It&#8217;s our desire to get God&#8217;s best with our less than best, and it quite simply doesn&#8217;t work that way.
Today, come back to giving your best. In everything you do today, do it with your best. There&#8217;s a scripture that&#8217;s always impacted me when I&#8217;m doing the daily work of cooking, cleaning and taking care of people. Colossians 3:23, Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for people. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.&#8221;
God knows what your best looks like, because he gave you your best. He knows what you can really do. He knows how good you can really do. And he also knows when you don&#8217;t do your best, it&#8217;s a danger to your heart.
Where do you need to throw away the boxes you&#8217;ve been checking and throw your whole heart into it again? Where do you need to show up with the best of you, not what&#8217;s left of you? Where do you need to protect your heart by offering nothing but your best? Do that &#8211; God sees it and you will feel the difference.
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