Sacrificial Giving - Mark 12:41-44

As Jesus watched people putting their gifts in the temple collection chest, a poor widow dropped in two small copper coins, their value being only a fraction of a cent. Jesus declared that the widow gave more than all the others because "they all contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in everything she had, all she had to live on" (Mark 12:44). God measures gifts to Him not on the basis of the size of the gift but of the size of the sacrifice--the greater the sacrifice, the greater the gift. Therefore, with God what is important is not so much a matter of how much you give, but how much you give up! And this principle applies not only to money but to your time and even your own self or will. Jesus said: "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me" (Mark 8:34).