Abel's Faith

Why was Abel’s offering so much better than Cain’s? Abel brought the firstlings of his flock and the fattest. Gen. 4:4 Whereas Cain just brought some crops or fruit of the ground. Gen. 4:3 Abel was taught by his parents as well as Cain how to present their offerings unto God. By faith Abel did just that and his offering was accepted by God. Not only that but he also obtained witness that he was righteous. Cain could have done the exact same thing, bring the firstfruits of his crop and the best, but he instead thought he could bring God just any old thing and that God would accept it. Oh, how he was wrong.

Proverbs 3:9, Honour the Lord with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:

When reading this the word all jumped out at me. We are to give God the firstfruits of any increase that we receive. So, this is not just based on our income from our employer but any increase that we receive. I must be transparent and say that I was very disobedient about that. I received child support for my daughter and I did not feel as though I needed to tithe on this money. It was my reimbursement from taking care of my daughter all alone for all those years. This money belonged to me. The Lord blessed me to receive that money and I didn’t do what He was asking of me. There are so many mothers raising their children alone with no support from the fathers. But what a rude wakeup call I got when the payments stopped coming. The Lord allowed me to go quite some time without receiving a dime. But He then brought a wonderful friend into my life that helped me to go through the proper channels to get it started again. Please believe I learned my lesson.

Abel by faith and with the right heart set gave his firstfruits and the best of his lambs as an offering unto God. When you are blessed with that bonus check or an unexpected refund of any sorts, give your firstfruits (1/10 or 10%) to Christ. He will bless the rest to do what it needs to do to keep you covered and supplied.