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A WILLING HEART (II)
MONDAY, APRIL 12
Exodus 12:35-36

Mark 12:41-44

 

“…she of her want did cast in

all that she had…”

 

A WILLING HEART (II)
 
A willing heart is reasonable. There is a natural question that arises when we read God’s command to the Israelites to bring their offerings of “gold, and silver, and brass, and blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine linen…” (Exod 35:5-6). The Israelites were slaves, rescued from bondage in Egypt; they were in the wilderness, without access to any resources ‒ where did they get all this gold, and silver, and fine linen?
 
The answer is that God provided it for them. As they were leaving Egypt, the Israelites were told to borrow (the word simply means to ask, without our modern-day implication of an eventual return of the item thus “borrowed”) from the Egyptians “jewels of silver, and jewels of gold, and raiment” (v 35). It was God who moved the Egyptians to give their valuables to their former slaves (v 36); and so when God commanded materials to be brought for the Tabernacle, He was asking His people to  give willingly to Him what He had first given to them.
 
This is a perspective that we very much need today. So many are proud of their giving, as though they have done some great thing by bringing a large amount to God ‒ they do not recognise God as the source of all their wealth; they do not praise Him for His grace; and they are put to shame by a poor widow who gave all that she had (cf. Mark 12:41-44). So many, on the other hand, are grudging and stingy, thinking of their money and their time as their own, and unwilling to give these up for God’s use. The basis of a willing heart in this context is an attitude of stewardship: recognising that what we have comes from God, and has  been entrusted to us not to fulfil our own purposes, but God’s.
 
It has been said that “God’s work done in God’s way will never lack God’s supply” ‒ but what is God’s supply? Not a chest of gold dropped from heaven! God’s supply is His people, who as stewards of His gracious gifts give willingly to the work of His kingdom. Dear reader, when the call comes, when resources are needed for God’s work, will your heart be willing? Will you look at your possessions with the eyes of a steward willing to serve the Master?
 
THOUGHT: All that I have comes from God.

PRAYER: Father, make me a good steward of Thy gracious gifts.

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