What if the jar is empty and God still seems to be asking?
There’s a moment most of us know well. You’re standing in a queue, doing that quiet mental calculation - working out whether you can actually afford to be generous this week.
Maybe it’s a collection at church. Maybe a friend who needs help. Maybe a cause you care about. And you think: I’ll give when things ease up a bit.
The trouble is, things don’t always ease up.
I’ve been sitting with 2 Corinthians 8 this week, and I can’t stop thinking about those Macedonian Christians. Paul describes people going through severe hardship - “very poor” is how he puts it - and yet they were giving beyond what they could afford. Voluntarily. Joyfully. They actually begged for the chance to do it.
That sum doesn’t work on paper. But here’s the part that stops me every time: Paul says their first action wasn’t to give their money. It was to give themselves - their whole lives, held out with open hands.
That’s the sequence that changes everything.
When you give yourself to God first, everything else starts to look different. Your money, your time, your energy - it all shifts from being your resource to protect into his gift entrusted to your care. And stewards don’t grip things the way owners do.
Haggai 2:8 says it plainly: “The silver is mine and the gold is mine, says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies.” It always was. And strangely - that’s the most freeing thing you could hear.
I’ve put all of this into today’s five-minute devotional. If you’re feeling the weight of not-quite-enough right now, I think it might be worth five minutes of your time.
👉 Watch today’s devotional here:
See you tomorrow.
Rob
Read this week’s devotionals here - https://open.substack.com/pub/battledrilldevotional/p/what-if-generosity-isnt-about-money?r=643q6o&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true