When I first read the story of Cain and Abel, it really bothered me.
Okay, so maybe it’s not so much the story that bothered me, as it was the outcome.
The story of two young men who were bothers and had been raised by EXCELLENT parents, Adam and Eve who taught them greatly about the power of a great sacrifice. Cain was a farmer that grew great vegetables and Abel was a Shepard who looked after the family’s herds.
When the Lord asked them for a sacrifice, Abel decided to give of His best lamb while Cain did not.
I thought it was so unfair that Abel gave his very best sacrifice and where was his blessing?
Cain killed him, and while God had the power to spare his life, but he didn’t.
I couldn’t shake this out of my head, why didn’t God save him? He favored him but yet didn’t bless him? How was this fair?
As I pondered on this story more, I realized something. Sometimes God allows the righteous to die. Not only that, but sometimes God allows His most favored and righteous souls to go through really hard trials and to pass on sooner than others. While we don’t always have the answers to know why this happens, we can see a pattern that God is good always.
I kept looking through eyes of this world when I was pondering on the lessons of this story.
The world says all blessings must be immediate and visible to the human eye.
But what if God has a greater purpose? What if Abel was being blessed? He was living his life without fear, because just maybe Abel had a feeling that it may turn out the way it did because Cain and Abel didn’t always get along. What if Abel KNEW deep in his heart of the outcome and that he would die? If he did (which is does not say), he showed up and gave his best anyways with NO fear!
That is absolute faith! That is the faith that changes things. He knew it would all be okay. Sometimes we see death as the end all and it didn’t end up okay. But we don’t know EVERYTHING that happens in the afterlife. We don’t know all the blessings that await us. That’s the power of faith.
Here’s where this story relates to YOU!
Perhaps you’ve been feeling that God isn’t blessing you. You may believe with your whole heart your sacrificing and doing all the right things, and you’re wondering where your blessings are.
It’s Satan that shows up to say “You’re not being blessed. God doesn’t notice you or love you.”
What if God has been giving you bread this entire time and it’s your beliefs that turn it into a stone?
I can’t tell you how many times I have done this!
What if the blessing isn’t exactly what you expected, but it’s BETTER than you thought. And yet your heart has been so hardened that you can’t SEE it.
I’ve done this more times than I wish as well.
By the way, a hardened heart doesn’t always come from big sin. Sometimes it comes simply by our thinking. By the simple act of forgetting (hence that keyword REMEMBER). Not choosing faith & charity in every moment (which I think is beautiful to strive for but absolutely impossible to meet), this is where a hard heart is born.
So give yourself grace if you’ve had negative thoughts, haven’t been living truly in faith, or haven’t had the energy to practice charity. It’s not possible to be 100% perfect, hence the need for a Savior.
But that’s the gift, the power of Christ’s atonement allows us to change our hearts and mind to see the good that God is sending daily.