Jesus is pictured sitting near the Temple treasury observing how people were giving to God. (Mark 12:41-44) While many who were “rich” cast great sums into the depository, a widow who lived in poverty cast in just two mites, called a “farthing.” This was the least valuable of any Roman coin, said to be worth about two-fifths of a penny. But Jesus said that her giving—out of her “want”—was “all that she had.” In God’s sight, compared to the rich people who were at that time casting in “of their abundance,” Jesus affirmed that “this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury…she of her want (poverty) did cast in all that she had, even all her living.” (Mark 12:43,44)
That evaluation cuts against the grain of how most people evaluate giving. Great sums of money left to one’s favorite charity—or given to one’s heirs, or to a person’s church—cause wonder, even amazement. A pittance dropped into an offering plate by some poor soul would not be given a second thought in this materialistic age, in which the latest lottery jackpot might have reached one billion dollars!
Picture Jesus watching you give to God in an act of stewardship, whether through an offering as part of church worship, or through an on-line gift that one gives systematically to support the work of God. Question: How would He evaluate your offering? He and only He can make a true assessment of your gift—whether it is sacrificial, by faith, out of abundance or “want,” and given cheerfully. (2 Cor.9:6,7) What do you think He would think about your giving last week? Last month? Last year?
I read a story about a father who had just purchased a meal at a fast-food restaurant for his son. The dad reached over to sample one of the boy’s french fries, asking, “May I have one?” The son responded by pulling the serving of fries closer to him and saying, “No, these are mine.” Not particularly overjoyed, the father had three immediate thoughts about his son’s stinginess: (1) “He doesn’t understand where his fries came from; (2) He doesn’t realize that I could take all those fries from him, or bury him in fries; (3) He doesn’t realize I could get my own fries, and I do not need his.” (John Maxwell)
The late W.A. Criswell, pastor for half a century of First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, once illustrated the importance of liberal, cheerful stewardship: “When God gits His, and I git mine; then everything will be just fine. But when I gits mine, and keeps God’s too, well then, what do you reckon God will do? I believe He will collect, don’t you?”
H.G.B., one of the “old-time” writers for the early Radio Bible Class (M. R. DeHaan) editions of Our Daily Bread, offered this testimony about giving in one of his devotionals: “August Hermann Francke, a well-known preacher of Halle, started an orphanage for homeless children. One time, when the pastor was in sore need of money, a desperate Christian widow came to him asking for ‘one gold ducat.’ Francke politely told her that he could not help her at that time, but the persistent widow begged him for the help. At last, Francke said the Holy Spirit moved him to help the widow and trust the Lord for his own need. A few mornings later the pastor received a note of thanks from the poor woman, assuring him that she had prayed that God would shower gifts of money on the orphanage in return for his generosity. H. G. Bosch writes: ‘That same day Francke received from a certain lady 12 ducats, plus a package from a friend in Sweden containing 2 more. Hardly had he put the money away when a total stranger dropped by to give him an additional 25 gold pieces. He now felt richly rewarded by the Lord, but shortly afterward, on the same day, he was informed that a certain prince had died, and in his will directed that a bag filled with 500 gold ducats be given to the work of the orphanage! Francke was deeply impressed that when the Lord pays back our ‘loans,’ He does so with an abundant hand, yea, ‘good measure, pressed down, and running over!’”
As you have no doubt heard it said, “You can never out give God!” Or, as my friend Lonial Wire would often testify about God’s faithfulness and generosity, “When I shovel out a gift to God to meet a (missionary’s) need, God shovels it right back to me; only, His shovel is a lot bigger than mine!”
At the start of a new year, maybe it’s time to reevaluate our giving to God. As in the Temple at the Treasury, God is evaluating the giving being done. Is He pleased with how and what and why you give to Him?
“Give and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” (Luke 6:38)
YOU and GOD 