[MARCH 20] A Worthy Offering

Read: Genesis 4:1-7

"If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door."

--Genesis 4:7

I was delighted when a mutual friend gave my neighbor a Bible. But my neighbor told me she stopped reading it because 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 that God 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 the 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 offering He won't refuse. --Joe Stowell

Lord, may our worship and our praise,

From our hearts surrendered to Your ways,

Be worthy offerings of love

For all Your blessings from above. --Sper

REFLECT ON THIS:

God won't refuse a heart that is surrendered to Him.

[MARCH 11] God's Mercies

Read: Genesis 32:3-13 

"I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies" 

--Genesis 32:10

Less than the least of all God’s mercies.” This was the motto 17th-century English poet and clergyman George Herbert engraved on his signet ring, and it was the phrase with which he signed his letters and books. Jacob had spoken these words when he pondered God’s goodness despite his own sin and shame: “I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies and of all the truth which You have shown Your servant” (Gen. 32:10).

The word “mercies” is from the Hebrew word chesed, meaning “God’s enduring love.” I think it is significant that it rose from the heart of one who saw himself as utterly unworthy.

Relying solely on God’s faithful love, Jacob cries out: “Deliver me!” What an odd combination of thoughts: “I am not worthy... Deliver me” (vv.10-11). Unlike some who seem to have it all together, Jacob knew that everything he brought to God had been ruined by sin. He thought of himself as a man undeserving of God’s grace. But his hope lay not in his worth but in the promise of God to look with favor on those who throw themselves on His mercy. Humility and contrition are the keys that open the heart of God.

As He did with Jacob, God hears us when we humbly cry out to Him for mercy. --Dennis Fisher

For mercies so great, what return can I make?

For mercies so constant and sure?

I'll love Him, I'll serve Him with all that I have

As long as my life shall endure. --Chisholm

REFLECT ON THIS:

Mercy is an unearned blessing bestowed by God on an unworthy recipient.