Luke 21:1-4 And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. So He said, "Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had."
God doesn’t look at the quantity we give, He always looks at our capacity to give. Quantity doesn’t reveal the heart, capacity is what reveals the heart. God doesn’t want your money, He wants your heart – all of it.
There is no better test of where your heart is than to give something that you treasure or depend upon, to God.
Abraham treasured Isaac. There was nothing on the face of the earth that brought him more joy. He’d waited 25 years for this son and now Isaac had arrived, grew up into a pre-teen adolescent, and just brought so much joy to the heart of Abraham. And then God said to Abraham, give Isaac to me. Abraham acted without flinching. He prepared to offer God his beautiful, only child. But God didn’t want to take Isaac from Abraham, He wanted Abraham’s heart.
As Jesus watched people bring their offerings to church, He saw many giving large amounts, maybe amounts they would not miss and did not need, because it was still small compared to all they possessed. This poor widow, however, gave all she possessed – she gave everything that she needed. And Jesus is saying that her capacity was the greatest of everyone – she gave the most.
Every time we give, we are positioning our heart toward God. Every time we give we are increasing the capacity of our heart toward God. Every time we give, God gets bigger on the inside of us.
Giving enlarges the heart making us big-hearted people. It’s the size of our heart, not the size of the gift that makes the difference in your life.
John Bechtel, a missionary in Hong Kong, wanted to start a Christian camp to reach people for Christ. A bankrupt multimillion-dollar hotel and conference center became available for sale. He made an offer to purchase the property and then traveled around the world to raise the millions he would need. But no one was willing to help and he returned to Hong Kong discouraged. However, he got a letter from a young girl that included $1 and a note saying she wanted him to use this to buy the camp. John Bechtel prayed and took the girl’s $1 to the real estate company and the corporation decided to accept the $1 as full payment! Since the camp first opened (1971), over a million people have come and over 100,000 have accepted Christ.
It was the size of this little girl’s heart, not her gift that made all the difference!
Become a person that doesn’t struggle and strive when it comes to money and being generous towards God’s church with your money. At the very end of your life, what will really count will not be the amount of money that you have, but what you gave for the Lord’s Kingdom and His church!