Offering (4)

But a poor widow came and put in two very small copper coins, worth only a fraction of a penny. 12:42)

What is offering? The greatest conventional misunderstanding is that God may need our offering. The idea is that God may feel hungry or lingers for something like a human being. But in reality it is not at all. God needs nothing. Different from human whose base of existence completely depends on the exterior God needs nothing, for his base of existence is the interior. God does not need our offering.

You may say offering is necessary in order to do some practical work of God. You would like to say preaching, education, services and even worship would be difficult without money. It is not like that. God is not the one who works with man’s offering. If God happens to be such a being, he would not have been called the creator. Our God works independently with his unique way which is completely different from our expectation.

When we read Psalm 50:9-13., it says, “I have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every bird in the mountains, and the creatures of the field are mine. If I were hungry I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it. Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats?” Many other prophets also said the same.

What does it mean by the above mention verses in Psalm? It means that we must not emphasize too much on the activity of offering. Do we offer a Crore or thousand Crore? Though we offer such huge amounts, how much can it support God’s salvation activity? Though we do not offer anything, God’s salvation work cannot be hindered. People are proud of a penny of offering inwardly or outwardly. People say proudly that they send a missionary abroad- with much offering. They misunderstand as they are replacing God’s position in doing the work of salvation. Does God laugh at all these in heaven?