DAILY DEVOTIONAL – September 15, 2020

“You Can Have It All”

Prayer:  Holy God, You are the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.  You have proven so faithful in Your Words, in Your love and in Your mercies for us each day.  Especially as we find them in Your beloved Son Jesus.  Grant us the strength of faith Lord to trust You with our everything, for all that we truly have is You.  Amen.

Scriptures:  Mark 12:41-44

“Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings were put and watched the crowd putting their money into the temple treasury. Many rich people threw in large amounts. But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a few cents.  Calling his disciples to him, Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on.”

Devotional – “You Can Have It All”

We learn time and again throughout the Scriptures that a genuine faith, a faith that is firmly planted in the sufficiency of Christ and the faithful provision of God, cannot help but lay all they have to live on at the feet of Christ.  To see Christ is to see that the very treasures of heaven have already been given to you and to me.  If God would give to us, if God would sacrifice for us sinful people His most precious and only Son, what good thing do we think God would now withhold from us?  As Paul says in Romans, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?” – Romans 8:32.

Jesus says in Luke 12, “Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? – do not set your heart on what you will eat or drink; do not worry about it.  Your Heavenly Father knows that you need these things. Seek first his kingdom, and these things will be given to you as well.”

What need do we have that God won’t provide for?  He has promised to take care of them all.  Of course, the difficulty of trusting our Father for our needs is when we confuse what we want with what we need.  Trusting in our loving Father’s care and provision is even more complicated when we insist on defining what our needs are rather than allowing Him both decide and provide for what we need.  If we are honest, I think we can all admit that it has not been just a few times we have been convinced we know what’s best for us and have paid dearly for it.

You know friends, when it comes to our tithes and offerings, the truth is God doesn’t need our money to accomplish His will, or to equip us for our mission to proclaim the Gospel.  Just as valuable, dare I say MORE valuable than an offering of money, is the offering of yourself…the giving of yourself to God for His glory.  The giving of your worries, of your desires, of your fears, of your goals, of your time, of your abilities, your thoughts, your words, your actions…the giving of your everything.

How do you ever say thank you enough to God for such an amazing sacrifice as that of His Son Jesus Christ?  The truth is, we can’t.  We must proclaim with Paul in 2 Corinthians 9, “Thanks be to God for his inexpressible gift!”  Furthermore, friends, God isn’t holding out a measuring cup us asking us to give enough back to Him.  No, God is God.  He has no needs.  He Himself is sufficient for Himself, and for us.  His salvation in Jesus and His love and care and mercy and provision to us each and every day is given freely.  Christ has already paid the price in full.

God calls us to lay everything down at His feet not because He needs it, but because we need it.  When we surrender all of our time and talents and treasures to Him, we are freed from the bondage and trappings of this material world that deceives us constantly into believing we have to have this or that or do this or that to be happy.  Friends, some of the most genuinely happy people I have ever met, are some of the most disadvantaged in regards to the world’s measure of blessing.  In Christ we all have that peace and joy that surpasses not only our understanding, but also any circumstance or challenge we may find ourselves in.

Surrender it all to Christ.  You will find your everything only in Him – and remember, God has forgiven yesterday, is with you today and has already taken care of tomorrow.  Amen.