Nougat 15

Have you ever given less than your best and regretted it afterwards? I have, and it’s not a good feeling. Today’s Holy Nougat reminds us to reorder our values with Christ’s.

“All of them are giving out of their spare change. But she from her hopeless poverty has given everything she had, even what she needed to live on.”” ‭‭Mark‬ ‭12‬:‭44‬ ‭CEB‬‬

Giving Everything

Whether out of frustration, desperation, fear, anger or a genuine desire to serve God, the widow gave her everything. Just think, she whose needs should be cared for by the temple, was in fact caring for the needs of the temple. And in so doing, she gave God her everything!

How often has God’s invitation to us to collaborate been met with mediocrity apathy, and/or murmuring from us? To what end? And if we justified our actions by calling fatigue, God’s got rest for us (Matthew 11:28), and will restore our souls (Psalm23:3). And should we declare that we don’t have enough, God promised up to a hundred-fold return on our investment (see Genesis 26:12-13) and the parable of the talents (see Matthew 25:14-20).

I believe that sometimes we don’t give our all because we fail to see God at work in the invitation to collaborate. It’s like the actual act of tithing or offering at church. Mark you, the teaching preceding the moment oftentimes asserts that we give to God. But we manage to buy into the lie that it is a sign of our satisfaction with the affairs of the church. I agree – there are some spaces that abuse the privilege to manage God’s business but that is on them. Ironically, in those spaces it is normal to give wholeheartedly to God with Zero complaints.

Our stinginess, mediocrity, grumpiness, lovingkindness, generosity, efficiency, or service all say Who we worship. And if our actions and words are less than generous, or are half-hearted, dare I suggest that the god that points to isn’t YHWH, our Creator.

So

What is God inviting us to partner with in this season? Even if there’s no reward, we ought to give back to God. We can see it as gratitude or we may rightly understand that nothing we have is really ours. The psalmist reminds us – the earth is God’s and everything else, the world and all its inhabitants (Psalm 24:1 paraphrased). If we hold this as truth, then whatever we do serves as a reflection of God’s wealth and God’s generosity!

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May all we seek be found in Christ