Honest Offering: A 6-Day Devotional With CAINSample

You Can Have It All

(Honest Offering)

He looked up and saw the rich dropping their offerings into the temple treasury. 2 He also saw a poor widow dropping in two tiny coins. 3 “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all of them. 4 For all these people have put in gifts out of their surplus, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.”

—Luke 21:1-4

You can have it all. What if someone texted those words to you? Or what if they came to your inbox as the subject of an email? “You can have it all” is not an uncommon sentiment, and it often makes us think of ourselves and what we can gain.

Human nature makes us focus on ourselves—what we want, need, and think we can get. It’s true in our culture, and it was true in Jesus’s day too. In the most religious setting where the most religious activities were taking place, Jesus looked up and saw this idea being demonstrated in two vastly different ways.

People were giving their offerings. They were showing up and doing what they thought was the right thing to do. But their understanding and practice were shortsighted. It wasn’t about the money; it was about the heart. And Jesus knew their hearts had convinced them to think of themselves as the subject.

That is, all except one—a poor widow who dropped two pennies into the offering plate. To her, “You can have it all” meant something different. She knew she wasn’t the subject of the sentence.

The irony wasn’t lost on Jesus. It wasn’t those who had been blessed with earthly provision that were most grateful to God. Instead, it was the one who had nothing. Whether they knew it or not, every person in the temple that day was spiritually bankrupt. We all are. And a poverty of spirit cultivates a heart that knows full surrender is the only response that makes sense.

An honest offering is an offering that holds nothing back. It does not come before the Lord with a question of duty, asking, “What do I have to do?” Rather, it comes before the Lord with a question born out of gratitude and love, asking, “What do I get to do?” An honest offering comes from a heart that says, “Father, You can have it all.”

• Listen to CAIN’s “Honest Offering.” What lyrics stand out to you as particularly encouraging? Which stand out to you as most challenging?

• What would change in your life this week if you were to give the honest offering of your whole self to the Lord?
• Thank God that He can turn the pennies in your hand into heavenly treasure. Ask Him to help you not approach surrender as an occasional event but as a whole life, everyday attitude.