12-9-2016

 Good Morning All,

            Luke 21: 3-4; “And he said, “Truly, I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them.  For they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on”

    This is a portion of the story that is often called “The Widow’s Mite”.  Jesus, along with his disciples and a few other onlookers, are watching as people are putting their offerings into the treasury.  The rich are putting in a lot of money and this poor widow puts in a couple of copper coins. 

    For us today, we might ask the question; who gave more?  What if Bill Gates or Warren Buffet or T. Denny Sanford donates $5 million dollars to a cause and then what if a widow lady who only has social security to live on and she gives $800?   Who gave more?  Obviously the $5 million is numerically greater than $800 but who gave a larger share of what they had? 

   We often struggle with lessons like this one.  By any measure, the people of the United States are wealthier than most of the rest of the world can even dream.  So how do we balance this?  Do we give to God only out of our abundance?  Do we ever give like the widow, who put it all in?  Now before you think this is another plea for a lot of money, this lesson goes far deeper than a few more shekels in the collection plate; this lesson is about our faith.

    The rich in the Bible story (probably Pharisees and Sadducees) gave a lot of money.  They did it with a lot of show but they kept a lot back.  They gave but they always had a reserve because they lacked the trust, they lacked the faith to go totally in with God.  It is when you don’t totally place your faith in God that you get in trouble.

    Adam and Eve lost that faith and they looked for a better way.  They held back on the trust that God was able to provide entirely for them.  They held back and decided that they could do a better job directing their lives than God could.  They wanted an alternate plan; they wanted to keep their options open.  They figured that they could do better.

    We often do as well.  We hold back on trusting God fully.  We will give him a portion of our life, a portion of our faith but we hold back some; we keep some in reserve.  Yet this is what causes us the most pain.  We hold back; we look away from the only true source of our hope and salvation.  We keep some in reserve only to make our life worse.

    God calls us to complete faith; he wants us to go all in; to trust fully in Him.  God calls upon us to completely lay down our sinful lives and to live as his redeemed children.  He wants us to keep nothing back; nothing of the sins we hold to so tightly especially the sin of thinking our way is better.  Trust God to deliver you.  Give yourself fully to him and have faith in His promises.

Dear Father, too often we refuse to give our complete self to you.  We hold back out of fear and out of foolish sinful pride.  Strengthen us through your grace and give us the faith to trust you completely.  In Jesus’ precious name we pray, amen.

God’s Peace,

Pastor Bret