Beggar Who Gives Alms

Lessons from Downhere - Part 2

Check out their music and albums www.downhere.com!

Beggar Who Gives Alms
There are no mystic jewels, embedded in my prose,
No moonlit haloed cherubs, perched on my piano,
No lyrics laced with pixie dust, no angels sing along.
I am just a beggar who gives alms.

"And He saw a poor widow putting in two small copper coins. And He said, 'Truly I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all of them; for they all out of their surplus put into the offering; but she out of her poverty put in all that she had'" -Luke 21:2-4 

Gold and silver have I none, but such I have give thee,
Borrowed words from the one, who gave the gift to me,
The pearl that I could never buy, this life, this dream, this song,
And I am just a beggar who gives alms.

The sense I get when listening to this song goes along with the widow's gift in Luke 21. God is not after what's left over... He is after everything we have. This is unsettling, to say the least. I have so much that I really really want to hold on to! How can we come to a place where we desire to give Him everything? This is, for me at least, one of the hardest places to come to as a Christian. 

I am not the creator, but a scribe with a pen,
I'm recreating visions, through a cracked and broken lens,
Only one has ever seen the home for which we long,
And I am just a beggar who gives alms. 

When we stop and really think about what God has done for us, we will realize how truly amazing it is. Something that we never could have received on our power has been given to us. "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith- and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- not by works, so that no one can boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)  Not one of us could ever do enough to save ourselves from sin and death. But God has freely offered us salvation through His Son. This is what draws our hearts to give Him everything. The Apostle Paul said "What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ" (Philippians 3:8)

If you are like me, you desire to have a heart like this, but find yourself struggling to fight against the forces of this world. Don't worry... I believe that God will help us come to this point if we will faithfully seek Him. But we must be committed to seeking His heart by spending time in prayer each day. Only through His power working in us will we ever be willing to give Him everything.