Mark 12:43-44 (Jesus) called his disciples to him and said, "I assure you, this poor widow has given more than all the others have given, For they gave a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she has."
I always read that story as though I had come in at the end of the movie - amazing lady who gave the last of her means to Jesus trusting Him to meet her needs. What faith! What an amazing woman, she didn't have much so it wouldn't take much to meet her needs. That's a confession of my own shallowness.
What I missed was the rest of the movie, the life of faith that had preceded the end of the show, that made the end of the show a natural conclusion to this episode. She must have lived a life of total dedication and faith to even be able to do this. This sacrifice is just the natural consequence of her life of surrender.
The point I finally understood today is that it is only as we yield ourselves wholly to God, in complete faith for every moment - that He is there, that He is good, and that He loves me, that I will know the kind of freedom she modeled. Stuff does not matter. Position does not matter. Recognition does not matter. The only thing that does matter is that God loves me and I get to love Him back by just enjoying Him.
These words from my devotional today put it so beautifully: It is only as we yield ourselves to Him in complete faith and trust that we can experience true oneness with the Father, true freedom in Christ, and true, abundant, joy-filled living. (Cheri Fuller)
When my attitude and character are not marked by joy, I have to play back some of my own movie, to see what I have allowed to get in the way of complete yieldedness, what I have allowed to be an excuse for my own willfulness.
So, today, I am grateful to sit at God's feet and be reminded that when I am not experiencing joy, it is no one's fault but my own.
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