Midweek Focus: Mark 12:41-44

Mark 12:41-44 tells us that one day Jesus sat down across the road from the treasury and watched the people deposit their money into the trumpet-shaped receptacles on the stone wall.  He saw the rich put in a lot and the poor put in a little.  A poor widow put in two small coins which amount to about one cent.  Jesus urgently called his disciples together.  This woman put in more than any other to the treasury.  They put in from their surplus, but she put in from her poverty.  The woman sacrificed for God because her love for Him was greater than anything else.  He was all she cared about.

Real worship is valuing God above everything else.  Love and awe for who God is and what He has done for you fills you up to the point that you can’t keep it inside and it overflows out of you.  That is worship.  We are talking about the one who looked on nothing because there was nothing and by the words of his thoughts there was something.  And not just any something, there were living breathing men and women and animals.  There were stars burning in the unfathomable distance of space.  He gave you a world of good gifts and you betrayed him, you love petty things more than you love Him, but he loved you too much to leave you.  He chose to suffer for you.  He lived a sinless life to be yours, he died for the sins that were yours, and He rose again to give you abundant life.  You rejected Him as father but he chose you as His child.  Think on these things and the only right reaction will be to act, to sing, to give, share, to dance, to move, to go, to offer yourself to God as a living sacrifice.

Jesus sees this woman and her offering much differently than we often do. See this through the eyes of God, valuing as God does not as this world. In the Kingdom of God, we learn that people should be measured by their faith, not their wealth, their service, not their popularity. Here no one is concerned about your stuff or your money, but your love for God and your love for others. All people stand before God on equal ground. we all have nothing to offer to him, but he has given us everything.

This woman’s love for God was like a river overflowing its banks, once it reached a certain level it had to spread out and cover the surrounding area. When our love for God reaches its fullest potential, it drives us to do all sorts of good things for others. What does your love for God drive you to do? To give, to visit, to call, to serve, to sing, to dance, to tell others about him.  James 1:27 says Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world. Love God and love others, forget about the rest.