This is the first example of giving to God in the Bible. Both Cain and Abel brought something to God. Cain just gave God something -- not his best. Abel brought the very best. God knew it wasn't the best Cain could do. He knows this with us too. He told Cain "You know you can do better. This is going to affect you negatively so you need to fix this."
God doesn't need us or our money or anything from us. He can do His work without us. God wants us to give for our benefit. God gave to us first.
Giving is like faith -- we give not seeing often what happens with that gift but if we do it for God He will use the gift. By giving to God we are honoring Him. We recognize God gave to us first.
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." John 3:16
"We love because he first loved us." 1 John 4:19
What can we give God?
The best of our life -- fruits of our labor -- first fruits. The best.
"Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the Lord your God has blessed you." Deuteronomy 16:17
"Give generously to them and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to." Deuteronomy 15:10
Give with a generous heart.
Pleasing God through giving
"And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased." Hebrews 13:16
We should reflect God in our giving.
"Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver." 2 Corinthians 9:7
Giving because we want to. Just give.
"For if the willingness is there, the gift is acceptable according to what one has, not according to what one does not have." 2 Corinthians 8:12
God wants us to gladly volunteer. Give God your best.
Use what you have to do what you can. Where we spend ourselves is where/what we love.
"you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies." 1 Corinthians 6:20
"Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship." Romans 12:1
Our lives are finite; earth life is a short period of time. While we are here we are meant to do everything we can for God. Your body -- a living sacrifice -- give all you have while you walk the earth. Jesus got tired. He sacrificed His body even before He went to the cross.
"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." 1 Corinthians 10:31
Promises of God to the Giver:
"Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” Luke 6:38
"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it." Malachi 3:10
The blessing -- God will let us be part of His work. Do we trust God enough to give?
"Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness." 2 Corinthians 9:10
Where is your heart?
Is it grudgingly giving? Do I complain?
God wants to bless us. We should reflect God in our giving.
"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Luke 12:34
Your giving gives you away....(think about that).
We are the first fruits of God! God's best!!
"He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created." James 1:18
"Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies." Romans 8:23
"But we ought always to thank God for you, brothers and sisters loved by the Lord, because God chose you as firstfruits[a] to be saved through the sanctifying work of the Spirit and through belief in the truth."
2 Thessalonians 2:13
"His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness." 2 Peter 1:3
We can bless because we have been blessed much.
We can give because we have been given much.
We can love because we have been loved much.
Be an Abel. Not a Cain.
God will take you back.
Don't give grudgingly.