Supplication and Sacrifice
PRAYING and giving go together. No amount of praying will take the place of giving, and no amount of giving will take the place of praying. It is fitting, therefore, that our annual season of prayer should be a time for special donations for the advancement of the interests of the Lord’s work. While it is our duty to return thanks in words for the boundless grace bestowed upon us in the gift of Jesus to be our Saviour, it is none the less our duty to bring an offering as an evidence that our worship is more than mere lip service. God gives to us so that we may give to him, and he expects us to do so. Thus it was in ancient times, and the principle holds good to-day. “Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before Jehovah thy God in the place which he shall choose: and they shall not appear before Jehovah empty: every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of Jehovah thy God which he hath given thee.” Now is the time to ask great things of God and to plan great things for God, and we are to co-operate with God in making effective the plans by bringing in our tithes and offerings, and by offering ourselves as channels of light and blessing to the world. The sincerity of our zeal for God’s work in the earth is measured, not by the amount which we give, but by the ratio which the size of our gift bears to the amount with which the Lord has entrusted us. This is the lesson of the poor widow and her two mites. An earnest longing for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is springing up in many hearts. Our gracious God is awakening this desire in order that he may bestow the heavenly gift. In this spiritual endowment is the power for finishing the work. Let the people of God be united in asking for rain in this the time of the latter rain. Let them not think to buy this gift of God with money, but let them not forget the thank-offering. Let us both pray and give. This is the divinely ordained method.