Acceptable To God

Follow @KeeperofGodsWrd (A Post by Nicey) 
Today I am listening to the Audio of the KJV (Book of Genesis). I read the bible daily and God uncovers many mysteries of His word to me each time I read. However, recently I have been listening to the bible & this is very enjoyable as well. I find that this form of bible study is soothing to my spirit & I have a chance to recall parallel scriptures and events from the Old Testament to the New Testament. It is amazing how cohesive both parts of the bible are & how the same events (just with different people) appear in both portions. One scripture that stuck out to me was after Cain & Abel gave their offerings (Cain was a tiller of the ground & Abel was a keeper of the sheep). Cain was upset that his offering was not acceptable in God's sight & his face fell. God patiently addressed Cain as a loving parent by saying "Why art thou wroth and why has thy countenance fallen? If thou do well shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire and shalt rule over him" - Genesis 4:6-7. 


God was responding to Cain's anger as a parent should. God acknowledged that His child had an unjustified anger and addressed it promptly by explaining why Cain's offering was not acceptable. Genesis 4:3 only tells us that Cain brought fruit of the ground as an offering to God. But from god's response, we know that it was not the BEST of fruit offered because God tells Cain if it were, He would've had respect for it. Instead of Cain taking responsibility & being honest within himself, that He could have put more effort into an offering for God, he responded in a very spiritually immature way by hating his brother for doing well. Cain did not take heed of God's response. If Cain paid more attention to what God said, he would have realized the danger in him avoiding responsibility of his sin & in effect, his anger would be misguided, making him a slave to Satan & causing him to respond irrationally. Furthermore, if Cain were honest & humble, he would have repented for the lack of integrity in his offering & God would have forgiven him, assuredly giving him another chance to do better.

We can use the response God gave to Cain anytime we decide to give God only a little of us and expect for Him to be pleased with it. We use our time for SO many things that have little to nothing to do with God. Often times, we only talk to Him when we are feeling low or need to be delivered from trouble. This clearly mirrors Cain's offering - Because it is NOT our best that we giving The LORD. God knows that when we refuse to take responsibility in our sin, it consumes us & rules us... Becoming a transmittal disease that will infect others. God patiently instructs & warns us to be humble in accepting responsibility in our sin & have a repentive heart so that we are no further pulled in & owned by sin.


This applies to family, friendships and relationships.

My mother just did a video how our family behaves toward us. They refuse to accept responsibility for their part in treating us badly and the anger that should be turned on their sin is turned toward us (by reason of refusing to accept responsibility!), thus consuming them in their hatred toward us, making them a slave to their sin. I'm sure many of you know or are in a family with members that have not been kind in one way or another and refuse to acknowledge their wrong-doing.


Friendships are often ended because one (or both) has done the other wrong or neglected to love, respect and hold interest in their friend and will not humble themselves to apologize for this behavior.



Relationships suffer terribly because of selfishness and pride in refusing to take responsibility in not giving their best or not investing time, effort and integrity in the relationship.

An offering to God is not just to please Him... The effort or lack thereof placed into it displays rather a person truly loves, is grateful for and interested in relationship with Christ. We know that the character of  God, which is merciful, slow to anger and so loving, so by Him not respecting Cain's offering, we can be sure it was because Cain placed NO effort into it. I'm sure, because of the love that God has for us that it hurt Him when Cain showed so little effort in giving. In the end, Cain refused to take responsibility for his sin and killed his brother Abel, not because Abel did something wrong... But because Cain compared himself to Abel yet did not rise to the occasion & put forth effort. Oh how different would the story have gone if Cain decided to take responsibility of His actions, repent & do better...

Let us do our best to prove to God that we love Him. He is so gracious & loving & ALWAYS highlights our strengths... Encourages & helps us rid ourselves of our weaknesses... Be responsible... Be Spiritually mature...