The widows
offering, which she cast in to the Jewish treasury, while Jesus was watching, was very less. It was only two mites, but that was all that she had. It was "all the living she had". The offering was an outpouring of her love. It was "all" that she could give. Jesus considered it to be more than
the offering the rich people gave. Rich
men gave some thing from the abundance they had,
but the poor widow gave "all" that she had. It was from her heart.
That shows she
was worshiping God with all her heart. The offering
must be voluntary. Our offering can never be greater
than the offering God the Father has offered for our
sake, by giving His one and only son Jesus Christ for
the remission of our sins. He made Jesus to shed
blood for our sake. Jesus bore our sins and died for
our sake. He was buried, rose from the dead on the
third day, and later he did ascend into heaven. He is
now pleading on our behalf. God offers Salvation free
of cost for those who accept Jesus Christ as their
personal Savior.
When we make a
vow voluntarily to God saying that we would pay an
offering to Him, let us not delay. God does not take
pleasure in fools. It is better not to vow rather
than make vow and fail to fulfil it.
God says,
"Test me". He is asking us to pay sincerely from our heart to Him as
an honor to Him. His assurance is that our barns
will be filled and to watch if we have room enough to receive
blessings from him when we honor Him with our sincere
worship and our wealth. He challenges to
"see if I will not throw open the floodgates of
heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will
not have room enough for it."
Our God is
Almighty. He moves on the wings of the wind. He moves
on the clouds. He stretches out heavens like as we do
with the tents. He
is the creator of heaven, earth and the seas. He is
the creator of animals and man as well. He does not
need the flesh or blood of the bulls or goats as
sacrifice for Him. What he needs is the sacrifice
offered unto Him voluntarily and sincerely.
Let us not say to
God, "O God, give me this and I will give you
that in return: please take this as an advance and
after the work is over, I will pay you double this
amount."
Brothers and
Sisters let us understand that God does not take
bribes. He is the creator of everything there on the
earth, in the seas, and on the heavens. What is the
difference between the offerings made by Cain and
Abel? Cain offered to God some of the fruits, whereas
Abel offered the first and fat portions from some of
his flock. Cain's offering was not sincere. This is the
first offering we see in Bible and it forms the basis
for the type of offering we must make to our God.
Leslie M. John:
leslie@lesliejohn.net