Acceptable Offering

Genesis 4:6-7

Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it."

Good morning Zebras,

Yesterday I woke up depressed. I didn’t want to get out of bed. I just wanted to pull the covers over my head and be left alone. But of course I didn’t. I knew it was self-pity, which is a sin, so I got out of bed and fled to the Bible to talk to God.

He took me to this verse. A very familiar verse to me, one God has used many times when I am depressed. It always makes me look at what I am doing that is causing me to feel so sad.

Yesterday I thought it was because I haven’t been going to the gym. I know I am supposed to go to the gym to strengthen the muscles in my leg before surgery, but I don’t like the gym and I find every excuse in the book not to go.

But this morning I realized it wasn’t the gym at all, it was the fact that I was hanging on to a ministry that God had clearly told me to let go.

The funny thing about all of this is, of course, that is the context of the verse. Cain has brought an offering to the Lord. He has “done” something for God, but the problem is he hasn’t done the thing God asked him to do. Either he did what was easier or he did what he wanted to do, we're not sure, but we know it was wrong because the text says: The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor.

And look how Cain reacted: So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. Cain got angry and depressed.

Doing God’s work without God’s blessings is tiring, draining and depressing. But doing God’s work with God is the most amazing experience in the world.

Leaving a ministry that you love, that you know God called you to is never easy, but it is Biblical and necessary if you want God’s blessings upon the work.

Love,
Jill