NOT A MITE WOULD I WITHHOLD Was singing the old hymn Take my life (and let it be) at church yesterday and as we came to the words Take my silver and my gold, Not a mite would I withhold, I thought - what a hypocrite I am, theres no way, in my present relationship with Christ, that I would give all my silver and gold and every last mite to Him. I cannot think of any situation where I would give my everything to him, although thats exactly what this and a host of others hymns proclaim (I surrender all comes to mind easily), and we sing so gustily ever so often. Am I a minority? I dont think so; I am yet to meet a Christian who has given his or her all for the kingdom of God (although I am sure there are some out there). And yet we sing these hymns over and over again and get quite sentimental and mushy when we come to words like these. Ive had my lips tremble on occasion. Hypocrite? I dont really know. My desire deep down really is to surrender all and withhold nothing from my Lord and Saviour, but the reality is that I give Him only a portion of my life. And a portion of the material possessions He has blessed me with. So what does it mean to not withhold a mite? Give generously perhaps? Give even sacrificially so that it hurts? If there is any language I understand reasonably well, it is English; and according to my understanding of the English language not a mite means not one single bit! Although the common meaning of mite is a miniscule parasite that infects animals (like tics), it also means a small coin or very little. So the meaning of the line in the song is that I would not withhold my last small coin or last small asset. Do I do that? Of course I dont - on the other hand I am trying to get more from God (always thankful, of course) by latching on to His promises about His plans to prosper me and to enlarge my territory and bless me and bless my wife and children and give us good jobs and good health and good holidays and good food (so I can take pictures and put them on Facebook) - give, give, give Lord from your bountiful store in heaven - yeah, open those windows and those floodgates and drown me with your blessings, pressed down and shaken together and running over. Or is it that God doesnt need any more money for the extension of His kingdom? Its quite obvious that more money can do more for the extension of the kingdom. So even if we gave our all, it could be put to good use in the extension of the Kingdom of God and thereby, hasten the second coming of our Lord. Not a mite would I withhold ..... Has Christianity taken a wrong turn somewhere. We can rationalize this to kingdom come, but when the Kingdom does come (and it will), will we find that we were wrong? As DC Talk sang years ago, will it be a case of I wish wed all been ready? ~~~~~~~~~
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 04:20:17 +0000