Sacrificial Seed

‘Then a poor widow came and dropped in two small coins. Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I tell you the truth, this poor widow has given more than all the others who are making contributions’ Mark 12:42-43.

The third thing you have to do to prepare for a miracle is give God your sacrificial seed. The owners of the donkey could have said ‘who is the Lord that I should obey Him’. The widow of Zarephath could have asked the same question after all it was her own food. ‘Who is the Lord, is He the one that provided it? If He is God why did He have to make us suffer?’ And the little boy could in his childish attitude say ‘who is Jesus that I should give him my lunch box?’

When it comes to giving sacrificially, a number of people wrestle with this question in their minds ‘who is the Lord that I should respond?’ Yet in order to prepare for a miracle we have to take a step and bring our sacrificial seed to God. In my few years of pastoring, the most miserable people I have come across are those who when God brings an opportunity for giving sacrificially don’t give and then they are constantly flogged by their guilt. Some of them would even dodge church because of this. Yet when they give they are not happy. Whichever way, they are miserable. No wonder the Bible says ‘God loves a cheerful giver’. If they don’t give they are miserable and if they give they are miserable. God wants you to give cheerfully. I came across a bumper sticker that read ‘God loves a cheerful giver but He accepts from a grouch’. This is really funny but it is false. God loves a cheerful giver and if you give to God grudgingly it will not count. In fact the word miserable is gotten from the root word ‘miser’. Misers are miserable. You have to give your sacrificial seed. Moses had to lay down his rod. The widow of Zarephath had to give her last meal. The boy could have said there must be other people with better meals in the crowd. Probably there were but he did not say that. He said ‘Jesus can have my lunch’. The boy didn’t have a clue what Jesus wanted to do with his lunch. Jesus could as well have eaten it but the boy was wiling to let it go regardless. You have to be willing to give your sacrificial seed.

Prayer: Father, may I never bring an offering to you that costs me nothing. Help me discern quickly what I must sacrifice to experience a miracle, in Jesus Name.