Hi friends,
Hope you are doing good.
The text that inspired me to write this post was the narration of the Widow’s mites in Luke 21:1-4. “And Jesus sat over against the treasury and beheld how people cast money into the treasury; and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites (very small monetary unit), which make a farthing (quarter of a penny) And He called unto Him His disciples and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.” - Mark 12:41-44.
Hope you are doing good.
The text that inspired me to write this post was the narration of the Widow’s mites in Luke 21:1-4. “And Jesus sat over against the treasury and beheld how people cast money into the treasury; and many that were rich cast in much. And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites (very small monetary unit), which make a farthing (quarter of a penny) And He called unto Him His disciples and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, that this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury: For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.” - Mark 12:41-44.
When we read the Old Testament, we find in the book of Exodus,
God calling Moses to be His mouthpiece and to go to Pharaoh to bring forth the
children of Israel out of Egypt. Moses questions the Lord asking Him “why
should they hearken to my voice and believe me ?” God simply asks Moses the
more important question: “what do you have in your hand?” Moses replies that he
has a rod (being a shepherd in the wilderness) and God shows him how to use it.
Moses obeys God and throws it on the ground and it becomes a snake, God then
asks Moses to put forth his hand and take the snake by the tail and it becomes
a rod once again. This miracle would cause others to believe that the Lord God
had appeared before Moses.
God could have chosen anything to do the miracle but He chose
the Shepherd’s Rod that was already in Moses hand.
Similarly God has put into each
of our hands something; maybe treasure, time, talent and He expects us to put
to good use that which He has given us. If we look at others who have more than
us, we will feel inferior and will not be able to do that which God has already
empowered us to do. On the other hand, looking at people who seem to have
lesser than us may make us feel superior to them but this is also not what God
wants from us. Any kind of comparison between apples and oranges is not fair
because they are two different fruits- their color, fragrance, taste, etc are
all different similarly, all of God’s creations are unique and special in their
own way.
In the story of the Widow’s Mites God sees how she gives all
that she has with a willing heart. She is not holding back anything; even for
her existence. It is probably her faith in Jehovah Jireh (Provider) that
encourages her to part with her last two coins. It amazes me how the Lord
thinks. Anybody would have questioned whether her putting her two coins would
make any difference to the money collected that day but this God of ours who is
a God who sees our hearts, not only welcomes the widow’s mites but makes a profound
statement to the disciples that – “this woman has put in more than any of the
other contributors.”
Of course, ours is a God who fed the 5000 with a young lad’s
lunch box of five loaves and two fish. Even when His disciples question the Lord
in John 6:9 “what are they among so many? The Lord answers to make them sit and
He blesses and breaks the food and there was plenty for all.
Many times we question the value of what we have to give to
the Lord. But He doesn’t want our ability only our availability. As He is a God
who always uses that which He has already placed in our hand. So let us make
sure that we never belittle what little we have but that we make full use of
that which He has placed into our hands.
Not only does it displease the Lord when we do not make use of
our Talents,but it makes Him angry. As
we can see in the Parable of the Talents in Mathew 25:25-30, He calls the third servant a wicked and slothful servant for digging the coin in the ground. Jesus
says “For unto everyone that
hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance : but from him that hath not shall
be taken away even that which he hath.”
In another place, the
Lord Jesus curses the fig tree for not bearing fruit and it withers away. (Mathew
21:19)
In yet another incident, we can see how important it is to be
honest with that which is in our hands. In Acts 5:1-11 we see how Ananias and
Sapphira lied about the money that they had got after selling a possession.
They kept part of it for themselves and lied to the Holy Spirit even when
questioned by Peter about the amount. Both of them fell down and died that day.
On the one hand, we see a Lord whose heart is touched by the Widows Mites and
on the other hand we see how dishonesty angers the Lord.
The best way is to be grateful to the Lord for every little
thing He has bestowed on us and surrender it all back to Him to use it for His
Glory alone. At the end of it all, Jesus will never ask us what we did with
what we didn’t have but surely He will ask us what we did with what we had. Let
us make sure that when He does ask us we will be able to say confidently that
we have done all we could with all we had been given.
Have a blessed week,
Sparky laurie