Luke 21:1-4 – Generosity

If nothing else, these verses show us that Christ watches all that we do very carefully. You might think that Jesus would be too preoccupied with other things to observe those giving to the Lord. His betrayal, His judgement, and His death are all close at hand, and He knows it. But He thinks it worthwhile to watch a poor widow. Remember that our Lord Jesus never changes. Nothing is too little to escape His observation. No action of ours is too insignificant for Him to remember. He measures littleness and greatness by a very different measure from man’s. Things in our own life that we don’t think are all that important may be very serious in Christ’s sight. Actions that the world considers useless may be called great by Christ. We can take comfort in realising that our smallest acts of faithfulness are noted by Christ, and we should set a watch over our behaviour – realising that our most secret and trivial sins are seen by our Lord and Judge.

Christ looks at something more than the mere amount of men’s gifts in measuring their generosity. He looks at the proportion of what they give and the amount of self-denial required. He wants us to know that some who appear to give much actually in God’s sight give very little, and that some appear to give very little who in God’s sight give very much.

Christ is not just teaching about the tithe that all are required to give back to God. He is speaking of your giving above your tithe, and your giving of your time, and your ability, and your resources to the Church. Those who give of all they have in service to Christ will be, like this poor widow woman, blessed by God. Let us follow her example.

Questions
1. What should we remember about the things we do?
2. How does God judge generosity?
3. What kind of things can we give to God?

Prayer Points
1. Pray for the preaching and hearing of God’s Word tomorrow.
2. Use prayer points from your congregation.
3. Pray for family matters.