Verse: Hebrews 11:4
By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.
Thoughts
This verse is referring back to the story of Cain and Abel in Genesis 4. They both brought sacrifices to the Lord, and on the surface, it looked like it was all good. The difference, though, was in the quality of the sacrifice. Cain brought a random portion of his produce (he worked the fields), but Abel brought the best of his stock (he handled the livestock).
So this begs the question for us: are we giving God our best, or our left overs?
Now, I love leftovers. I always have. I know it doesn't make much sense. But I love the taste of a day old sub, or chicken from two days ago, or even cold steak that's been in the fridge a few days.
But what I wouldn't do is serve that to a guest! Imagine if we had a family from our church over for dinner and we didn't prepare, we didn't clean the house, and we didn't even cook. When we all sat down I just rummaged through the fridge and grabbed what I could find! No, we would clean the house, prepare an amazing meal, and welcome the family to a great night.
In the same way, God isn't looking for us to just make him an add on to our life. He doesn't want what's left over after we've done everything else we want - no - he wants all of us. He doesn't want just what's convenient, he wants our whole lives. He doesn't want to be 3rd place in our affections, he wants our whole heart.
Prayer
Help me to give you my whole heart today God, to not hold anything back!