Giving

“Calling His disciples to Him, Jesus said, ‘I tell you the truth, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others.’” Mark 12:43
Those of us who have been Christians for a while, know that when it comes to giving, God doesn’t notice the amount that we give. I would even go so far as to suggest that it’s not the percentage of what we have, that we give, either. A person with $10m could give half of it away and still live quite comfortably. But for the person with only $100, to give half away would be of much greater significance.
Another important passage to consider is 2 Cor. 9:6-11 – that on giving cheerfully and not because you’re forced to. We might have been told to ‘give until it hurts’. But that’s not what God is about. Give as much as you are happy to do so. And if the thought of giving anything at all makes you grumpy, then don’t give – but pray that God would soften your heart.
So, it’s not the amount, or the percentage, that we give, but what it costs us. We see a glimpse of the heart attitudes of the poor widow and the rich people: the rich people “threw in large amounts” (Mark 12:41), but the poor widow “came and put in two [lepta]” (Mark 12:42). It was easy for the rich people to give, and so they were unconcerned about it. They threw the money in and thought nothing more of it. But for the widow, it was a deliberate action. It required great willpower to let go of those two coins, knowing that she was giving to God. And Jesus noticed. This is a lesson for all of us, concerning not what we give to God (since that is between you and Him), but how we give.