Something to Give

As I was reading this morning about the widow and her two mites, I was reminded how we all have something to give. What a blessing! This account is in Mark 12:42-44. The rich were coming by the treasury at the temple and were throwing in a lot of money out of their abundance, but this is what happened next. "Then one poor widow came and threw in two mites, which make a quadrans. So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, 'Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; for they all put in out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood." This poor widow proved she had a heart for God. She knew that it was by His grace she had the two mites to give. What a powerful scripture!

This reminded me of an Old Testament scripture in 1 Kings 17. There was a famine due to drought which Elijah had prophesied would come. God told Elijah to go to Zarephath and see a widow that God was going to use to provide for Elijah. So Elijah went but when he arrived and met the widow, he asked her for some water to drink and some bread to eat. 1 Kings 17:12-16 says, "So she said, ' As the LORD your God lives, I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a little oil in a jar; and see I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it, and die.' And Elijah said to her, 'Do not fear; go and do as you have said, but make me a small cake from it first, and bring it to me; and afterward make some for yourself and your son. For thus says the LORD God of Israel; 'The bin of flour shall not be used up, nor the jar of oil run dry, until the day the LORD sends rain on the earth.' So she went away and did according to the word of Elijah; and she and he and her household ate for many days. The bin of flour was not used up, nor did the jar of oil run dry, according to the word of the LORD which he spoke by Elijah."

These two accounts both are of widows giving all they had. Sometimes our most desperate times call for the most desperate measures of faith. God does not disappoint. He always provides.