He values your gift Week 46, 2025

 

I notice you are not going out to give; did you make your own contribution online?

Online ke! Please don’t mock me. Not everyone is like you.

Well, no offence meant, everyone is going out to give something, and I come back and meet you still here: no shaking, eh?

See, there’s no point in my going out. I don’t have anything to give... don’t look at me like that. It’s not that I don’t know we should give, but what I have is very, very small. I mean, the money counters are just going to use my offering to make a mockery and tell people, “In this day and age - see what someone brought as an offering”. Let me hold my peace

Excuse me. Are you giving to the money counters or the Lord God?

What I have to give will make no difference at all in the budget. Didn’t you hear the amounts being mentioned as what we need to get for the church for the year? God is raising people who will give the money. My own role for service is elsewhere. I will respect myself, please.

You are getting things wrong here. First of all, we are not actually called to give to the church primarily but to God. 2Cor 8:5(ERV)  And they gave in a way that we did not expect: They gave themselves to the Lord and to us before they gave their money. This is what God wants. Okay? And the lord himself loves your giving from the heart cheerfully!

Even this tiny amount?

Look, God values what you give very differently from the way man does. It looks small in your eyes, but to Him who really matters, it’s quite big. Mk 12:43-44(ERV)  Jesus called his followers to him and said, "This poor widow put in only two small coins. But the truth is, she gave more than all those rich people. They have plenty, and they gave only what they did not need. This woman is very poor, but she gave all she had. It was money she needed to live on."  It’s going to be the biggest offering here today but you aren’t seeing that yet. Go ahead, it will bring God glory and pleasure.

Mmhh, that is not all the money I have to live on shah. It’s just very small. Alright, since you put it that way. I agree God accepts it and sees it differently. But what good will it do among so many needs? It won’t even transport the things from the market … Jn 6:8, 9(ESV)  One of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to him, “There is a boy here who has five barley loaves and two fish, but what are they for so many?” 

O you of little faith! God has use for it. Give it to Jesus. Mat 14:17-18(GNB)  "All we have here are five loaves and two fish," they replied. "Then bring them here to me," Jesus said. When He blesses such gifts miracles happen. What if the young lad had withheld his lunch that day? We must never be ashamed to give what we have because it looks small. It is what you have that is acceptable for you. 2Cor 8:12(WEB)  For if the readiness is there, it is acceptable according to what you have, not according to what you don’t have.

Well spoken, my sister. It’s too late. The time of offering has passed ….

Who said? Bring that amount, let’s send it forward. It isn’t late at all

 The Lord will fight for you                                                     Week 44, 2025

I had an exam coming up the following day; I had never known what brain fag was until now. I would finish reading a line, and by the time I will be going to the next line, I had forgotten what I had read! I spent the night awake in frustrated attempts at reading. We had had absolutely no lectures in this course; it was a technical one in my final year of engineering. An eight-month lecturers’ strike had resulted in a highly compressed academic year, and we, the students, were left to pick up the pieces. Other students could depend on cheating during the exams; I could do no such thing, being a believer in and follower of Jesus Christ.  Ex 23:2  Do not follow the majority when they do wrong or when they give testimony that perverts justice. 

How then could I pass if I couldn’t read even a line? By the time it was 7:00 am (the exam was set for 9:00 am), I called my parents in frustration and asked for help. Their counsel amazed me, “Go and sleep for an hour” was what they said, “you need the rest to be able to do the exam. You can’t do the exam in this state”. Is 30:15  For thus said the Lord GOD, the Holy One of Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”  I reluctantly agreed after they told me God would do the work one step at a time. So after sleeping, I got to the exam hall before 9:00 am without reading. Is 35:4 Say to those who have an anxious heart, “Be strong; fear not! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.” When I got there, I learned that the exam had been shifted to 1:00 pm- that was the beginning of the miracle!

I couldn’t go back to sleep, so I looked around and saw some colleagues reading and revising with past question papers. It seemed a good idea to me to join them, and so I picked one which had six questions to answer, five. I would copy out the question and answer it and do the necessary calculations. I was able to get through five of them before the exam- now I had something to go by. I went into the exam hall trusting God to help me. When I looked at the question paper, I was in shock: the lecturer simply changed the date. It was the exact script I had been working on before the exam, six questions to answer, five. I gasped, hardly believing what God had done, and set about writing. I was able to answer five very confidently.

After the exams, there was a general cry by the students to go and meet the lecturer to see how he could make sure we would all pass. The exam was easy for me, but I had no choice but to join them. And so that is how I got a “B” in a course I knew virtually nothing.

Truly, the Lord fought for me. Ex 14:13-14 Moses answered, "Don't be afraid! Stand your ground, and you will see what the LORD will do to save you today; you will never see these Egyptians again. The LORD will fight for you, and all you have to do is keep still." 

Gold is an engineer working in the Biomedical department