December 8, 2004

• Bringing God Your Heart

  I don’t think God was playing favorites when he looked on Abel’s fat portions more favorably than on Cain’s crop offerings.  God was not playing favorites!  But He knows what we don’t know as we read about this event centuries later.  God knows Cain’s heart!  Cain brought God the offering that was required, but he did not bring God his heart. 

  Ever done that?  I know I have.  The scenario goes something like this:  Hrmm…I probably cherish this (whether it be a relationship or desire/dream or material object) more than I should and I probably cherish it more than God, so I should give it to Him.  Oh, but it’s so good.  I love this thing.  All right, all right, I’ll give it to God.  (So I do.)  Oh no, why did I have to give it up?  It was so great.  Why does God make me give up something good?  Doesn’t He care about me?

  To actually bring God your heart would require a full-out recognition that God is the best.  It’s similar to when you have two options.  To choose one of the options is to say that you think that option is the best choice of the two. 
  

  Here you have two options: 
  1. Cherished Object
  2. God 

  So when you give something to God, it’s not that you end up with empty hands and have nothing.  No.  What you are doing in giving up that thing is choosing God instead.  You are saying, “God is the best option here.”  So what you have in your hands is God. 

  When you believe that in faith (“in faith” because it looks like you have nothing but empty hands), then you have at last brought God both the offering He requires and your heart.  And your heart, by the way, is actually what He wanted all along.  Not the offering.

  • 12:50 pm
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