What Makes Offerings Acceptable to God?

Seeking revenge can become such an obsession that it evolves into a force that overshadows everything, including your relationship with the Lord God. Cain, the son of Adam and Eve, allowed anger, jealousy, and hurt feelings to possess him because his offering to God was rejected while his  brother’s gift was accepted.

Why was Cain’s offering unacceptable? If Cain’s values made him capable of murder, then he and his offering would be unacceptable until Cain was redeemed by God himself. Proverbs 20:17 confirms, “The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable no matter how perfect that offering appears visually.”

God looks at a person’s motivation, so if Cain’s offering was given grudgingly, then he did not have the right attitude for presenting his offering to God. 2 Corinthians 9:7 describes the correct motivation: “You should each give as you have decided, not with regret or out of a sense of duty, for God loves the one who gives gladly.”       

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Let us, then, always offer praise to God as our sacrifice through Jesus, which is the offering presented by lips that confess him as Lord. Do not forget to do good and to help one another, because these are the sacrifices that please God.

~Hebrews 13:15-16 Good News Bible 

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