In times like this, it’s easy to want to hunker down and hold on to everything we have.

It’s especially hard for those who are out of work or those who’ve been forced to take a reduction in pay. I really do understand that it’s harder to give when there’s not as much there to give as there once was!

Yet at the same time, think about the poor widow in today’s passage who gave everything she had to give to God’s work. While her gift wasn’t worth much monetarily, it was worth much… it was sacred… because she sacrificed to give it.

In the same way, your gifts to the Lord’s work and my gifts to the Lord’s work are made sacred when they come from a sacrificial heart.

Yet how many of us really give this way? How many really make a sacrifice in some area of life, how many are willing to give up a comfort, so that we can contribute to God’s work? Far too few, I’m afraid.

That’s why today, my question is simple. When it comes to the church and God’s Kingdom work in the world today, are you a giver… or a taker?

And if you’d admit that maybe you tip the scale to the side of being more of a taker, what’s one way you could start giving more to God’s work today?

Maybe it’s as simple as getting your family on a budget so that you can be better stewards of the income God’s given you. Maybe it means cutting out cable television for a while. Maybe it means delaying that purchase, or going out to eat less so that you can give more to your church and God’s work around the world today.

I don’t know what your particular situation is, but I do know that as Christians living in America, we’ve grown accustomed to certain comforts and privileges.

I just wonder how many more lives could be reached if every Christian sacrificed one thing so that they could give more to God’s work?

The problem is that far too many people want something for nothing. They don’t want to bear their own burden, as the Bible tells us to do. One of best stories I’ve ever read showing how attitudes have changed has to do with a letter written by Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain). The letter was written to the editor of the New York Herald, wherein Clemens declined to accept money from a fund they had raised for his debt relief. Here’s the story:

“I made no revelation to my family of your generous undertaking in my behalf, and for my relief from debt, and in that I was wrong. Now that they know all about the matter, they contend I have no right to allow my friends to help me while my health is good and my ability to work remains; that it is not fair to my friends, and not justifiable, and that it will be time enough to accept help when it shall be proven that I am no longer able to work. I am persuaded that they are right. While they are grateful for what you have done, and for the kindly instinct which prompted you, it is urgent that the contributions be returned to the givers with their thanks and mine. I yield to their desire, and forward their request and my endorsement of it to you. I was glad when you initiated that movement, for I was tired of the fact and worry of debt, but I recognize that it is not permissible for a man whose case is not hopeless to shift his burdens to other men’s shoulders.”

Nothing that Mark Twain has ever written will so commend him to the honor of mankind, now and in the future, as this letter. One of the important truths that needs emphasizing in our time is Paul’s declaration that “every man shall bear his own burden,” when he is able (Gal. 6:5). That is just as true and as important a statement as the other made in the second verse of the same chapter, “Bear ye one another’s burdens.” Self-respect requires us to do to the full measure of our possibility before we accept sympathetic aid.–THINK ABOUT IT!