The Gift of You

“The Gift You”

“But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.”

Matthew 6:3-4

We are never more like Jesus than when we love and love is never more evident than when we sacrificially give. Giving in love is just one of the distinguishing marks of a disciple of Christ. I am blessed to pastor a church of givers. It isn’t the amount that people give that matters most, it’s the heart behind the giving that speaks the loudest. In the truest sense the best gifts we can offer to God and to others is when we give ourselves. Proof, the real treasure is the relationship, not the item we offer.

Consider the cute story of the chicken and the pig who decided one morning to fix a birthday breakfast for the owner of the farm in which they lived. The chicken suggested that each bring something to celebrate the farmers special day. The chicken offered to bring some eggs and asked the pig to bring some bacon to which the pig responded. “Your gift will cost you little while my gift will cost me all”. There is a difference in our giving and the giving that speaks volumes is when we give our all. After all, isn’t that what Jesus did when He went to Calvary’s Cross for me and you? He gave His all.

The next time you think your giving isn’t significant and no one notices take special note of the story in Mark 12 about the “widows mite” and it will warm your soul as Jesus is very in tune with sacrifice that is done in love. Mark’s gospel tells us about a woman who comes and drops what is known as a “widows mite” into the trumpet. The trumpet was the metal offering box that when a person dropped their offering into it a sound was made as the coins dropped through its many channels. The bigger the coin the more noise the offering made. A widows mite was very small, equal to about 1/16 of a penny and the smallest coin of its day known as a ‘Lepton’, which means, “the thin one”. The point is this, beloved of God; when the woman dropped her gift into the box it hardly made a sound, no one even noticed it, no one except Jesus. Jesus hears what no one else does. He hears what others ignore; Jesus hears what no one is listening for. Over all the noise in the market place and all the people gathered there Jesus heard this tiny sound and it blessed Him so.

I share this story with you to encourage you that though you might feel small and insignificant, unnoticed by the world around you, the Lord sees you and He hears the gifts you offer to Him and others in love. It’s not the amount ever that impresses the Lord, it’s the heart behind the gift that matters. The widow in Mark’s story may have had little but what she had the Lord rewarded and He caused to endure. Her story is still being told some 2000 years later, proof that a little goes a long way with Jesus!

The sound of sacrifice is always a beautiful sound in the ears of God. This widow gave her best and though it was little in comparison to what others might have offered, the Lord was blessed by her gift because though she gave little, she gave her all. That’s the key to giving, loved one, when you and I give our all, because when all is said and done its not the amount of the gift that people remember, they remember the heart, the sacrifice and the love in which we give. Yes, loved one, you give your best, when you give your all!

“But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.”

Hebrews 13:6

I LOVE YOU!