Are You in the Giving Mood?

Daily Reading:  Luke 21

Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them. 4 For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on. (Luke 21.3-4)

Devotional Thought: Most of Luke 21 is devoted to the “Signs of the End of the Age,” but before Jesus addresses that issue, he takes advantage of an opportunity presented when a poor widow gave her offering.  I noticed several things in this brief account:

• Giving to “the church” was not necessarily private.  Both the wealthy and the poor placed their offering into the treasury in view of all the others.  Throughout the Israelites’ history, sacrifices and offerings were a very public affair, with all the offerings being combined into a great act of community worship.  The practice is continued in the church of Acts.  We privacy-driven Americans recoil at the thought.

• Here, Jesus neither sanctioned nor proscribed the practice of public giving.  Earlier in his ministry, Jesus taught that our giving to the poor should be in private, but he did not specifically mention giving to the church.  Had he been concerned about the practice, this seems like a perfect opportunity to bring it up.

• Jesus chose to ignore the privacy vs. pride issue around supporting the work of the ministry, focusing instead on a deeper issue, sacrifice.  Jesus praised the woman, not because of the amount of her offering, but instead because of the amount she had left: zero.  Do we get it backwards, valuing large gifts over sacrificial giving?

• As always, Jesus teaches us that there is not a halfway point in following him.  It’s all or nothing.  We tend to hold back a few things in reserve: control, pride, anger, loyalties, bitterness – you name it.

This Christmas season, as we are in “the giving mood,” can we remember the greatest gift of all - God's Son?  What is your gift?  Is it worthy of his?

Prayer: Thank you, Father, that you so loved the world that you gave your only Son.  In return, I give you myself, believing in Jesus and receiving him as my personal Lord and Savior.  Amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 144.1-8

1 Blessed be the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle;

2 he is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and he in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.

3 O LORD, what is man that you regard him, or the son of man that you think of him?

4 Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.

5 Bow your heavens, O LORD, and come down! Touch the mountains so that they smoke!

6 Flash forth the lightning and scatter them; send out your arrows and rout them!

7 Stretch out your hand from on high; rescue me and deliver me from the many waters, from the hand of foreigners,

8 whose mouths speak lies and whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood.