Today is June 7.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Take a moment and quiet yourself. Take a deep breath. Welcome God’s presence. And say, “Come Holy Spirit.”

Today’s reading is from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 21.


As Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple treasury. He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. “Truly I tell you,” he said, “this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth; but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.”


Sometimes we give to God out of an abundance, and sometimes, we give the very little we’ve got left. How are you coming to prayer today? Do you feel like you are able to be abundantly present to the Lord? Or do you come feeling very small, or impoverished?

Take time to imagine yourself in the place of the poor widow. You are standing in the temple, waiting to give your ridiculously small offering, You are a woman, a widow, and poor, which likely means you feel out of place among all the rich. Can you imagine how she is standing, eyes downcast? How others might be looking at her out of the corner of their eyes? Can you imagine, how very small she might be feeling as she places her coins into the treasury? Listen again, and try to feel the smallness that she may have felt.

Jesus ends with words that draw us back to the upside-down nature of the kingdom of God: to the rich, she gave almost nothing. To Jesus, she gave close to everything. Jesus sees things with different eyes. He sees YOU with different eyes. And He sees what you give, and how you give it, in an upside down sort of way. As we end, that about what it means to give to God out of abundance, vs what it means to give out of poverty. Ask Him for eyes that see what He sees in this world: where two very small coins can amount to extravagant and honored worship.

Music: Above All Else - Vineyard Worship - (YouTube)