Small Is The New Big

“I tell you the truth,” Jesus said, “this poor widow has given more than all the rest of them. For they have given a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she has.”

Luke 21:3-4

Jesus saw numerous displays of wealth as the pillars and leaders of the community dropped their offerings—many of them with great fanfare—into the treasury chests that sat in the Temple’s outer courtyard.

Jesus didn’t dismiss the gifts of the wealthy, but he did call attention to the widow’s gift. In a setting where many were hoping to be noticed and admired, the widow quietly gave her gift, assuming it to be so paltry that it would not make any difference. She was not giving out of a desire to be admired but out of love and obedience. That’s what set her gift apart. That’s what gave her gift its heft. The value of our monetary gifts to the Kingdom is that they are a measure of our hearts.

The most important gift given that day was the smallest gift of all, given extravagantly. The amount of money we give to support Kingdom causes really doesn’t matter. God can multiply small gifts and use them to accomplish big results. If the wealthiest people on earth were to give all they have to the work of the Kingdom, it would be a small amount. God values a gargantuan sum no more than he does the widow’s gift. What matters is what your financial gifts to the Kingdom say about your priorities.

God knows how easily we can come to love money and let it dictate our lives, influence our decisions, determine our emotional states. Money can become an idol faster than almost anything you can name. That’s why God wants us to remember that it is all his.

Why do you think he chooses to finance his work and meet the needs of his children through the financial gifts of his people? I think he allows his people to give because their obedience releases his abundance.

Father, everything I have is yours. Use it as you will.

God doesn’t need us to give Him our money. He owns everything. Tithing is God’s way to grow Christians.

Adrian Rogers(1931–2005), American pastor and author