Giving: November 17, 2011

NOVEMBER 17 2011. TODAYS WORD FOR THURSDAY NOVEMBER 17, 2011.

GIVING

DEFINITION:

Make a present of; donate; convey; bestow.

SCRIPTURE:

Jesus said, “This poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury.” Mark 12:43.

When you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Matthew 6:3.

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

These two verses that we have put above give us two very important principles that apply to our spirit of giving to the Lord. The first principle is that it is not the size of the gift that matters.

In Mark 12:41-44, Mark relates the incident that took place when Jesus was with His disciples in the temple area where people brought their gifts of money. A poor widow put in two small coins. These were very little gifts in comparison to the large amounts given by others. Yet, Jesus said to His disciples that the widow had put in more than all the others. The reason He said this was that the others gave out of their surplus, but the widow gave sacrificially-all that she owned.

Even if we have only a small amount to give, when it is given to the Lord He will bless it. We learned this as children when we had little to give but we always gave a minimum of ten percent of every dollar we received. It became part of our life style and we never quit giving this way and God has blessed us overwhelming.

The second principle that our Lord gave us as written in the above verse from Matthew is that we need to give without fanfare. In other words we do not need to announce what we give to anyone. Do not let your left hand know what your right hand gives. We are giving unto the Lord, not to gain favor from others on this earth.

Giving is much more than giving of our income. As believers we need to have a heart for giving. In James 1:22 James tells us to be doers of the Word and not hearers only. But he does not stop by telling us only to obey by being a doer of the Word but He gives us specific instructions as to how we can be a doer of the Word. He does this by giving us practical ways to be a doer. In James 1: 27 he says for us to “Visit orphans and widows in their trouble.” In other words we are to give not only of our treasures but of our time and talents. God expects us to have a heart of compassion and caring for the less fortunate among us.

We recently read about a young girl who kept coming home without her winter gloves. Her mother was driven, what we may say, crazy having to continually buy her new gloves. She finally told her daughter that she needed to be more responsible and bring home her gloves every night. The young girl responded by crying and through her tears told her mom that as long as she kept getting new gloves she could give them away to someone who did not have any and could not afford to get some.

The story went on that when this young girl grew up her hobbies included volunteering in the community and helping to mentor inner city children. You see that as a child she developed the habit of giving and as she grew up it became part of her life style.

We all need to ask God for a heart like this young girl. Out of love for God, then we need to obey Him by doing what He tells us to do. This is what we are supposed to be doing as believers in Jesus.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in Hebrews 10:36.

For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise.

PRAYER:

May we as a family learn today the importance of giving all that we should be giving of our treasures, our time and our talent to You so that You can use them for Your glory.