S2. E33. God Math: Give Him what you have & watch Him multiply it
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[00:00:00] And that's how you build sustainable habits. That's how you get out of that all or nothing mentality. When we have such high expectations when we make the barrier for entry so high makes it intimidating and not easy to follow through on. So do what you can and the Lord can work with that, but he can't work with it if you're just not doing anything and you're completely resisting and retreating. .
Hello. Hello. Welcome back to your Daily Bird podcast. Today we're gonna be [00:01:00] talking about God math. So pull up a seat, take out a notebook. We are going to be, talking about God's way of dealing with numbers and his way, how he multiplies.
We're gonna be starting with Luke 21 verses one through four, the story of the widow's offering. Father God, thank you so much for this day. Lord. Thank you for your heart. Wow, you are abounding in love. You have so much compassion. You are rich in mercy. You are slow to anger. We are so grateful for your nature, for your love for us.
For you sending your son to die for us. Lord, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, Lord, we are just so grateful for that gift, that sacrifice for eternal life, , lord, we just praise you for your supernatural [00:02:00] multiplying.
Thank you Jesus. I pray that everything that it said in this episode is what you want to say through me, and I pray that it transforms and heals every listener and every person that listens to this episode. In Jesus' name. Amen. So me looking at Luke 21 verses one through four, the widow's offering, as Jesus looked up, he saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple Treasury.
He also saw a poor widow put in two very small copper coins. Truly, I tell you, he said this poor widow has put in more than all the others. All these people gave their gifts out of their wealth, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she had to live on the word of the Lord. Thank you, Jesus. Wow. This is such an impactful passage, and I [00:03:00] pray that throughout this week you can really sit with it and meditate on it and see what the Lord is saying to you through these words.
If you imagine yourself in this story, imagining yourself as a person that gave their gifts. And then maybe , imagining yourself as the widow. What does that look like? Or as a bystander in this scene of scripture, what does the Lord say to you through it? And I think it's also important to ask yourself when you read stories in scripture like this, what is God revealing about himself in addition to what is he telling you about your own life?
And then to reflect on how is your heart responding to God? When you ask yourself those types of questions, you get so much out of scripture like this because this, it's only four verses, and this is a story that many of us have heard many times, but we fly past it and we don't let it actually change our heart and renew our mind.
I really felt led to talk about this verse in [00:04:00] relation to. The time that we spend with him. And God yearns, he aches to spend time with you. He wants to be with you always. And when you give God what you have, he will multiply it. Sometimes we hold back from giving God our time.
'cause we're like, well, God has done so much for me. You know, he deserves more than just five minutes, right? Or me meditating on a psalm. He deserves me to like dive into the word and do a full study. But , it's okay if you don't do that because when you make the barrier for entry so high, like I have to spend an hour in the word, or even I have to spend an hour at the gym and be super sweaty, you might not always have time for an hour at the gym.
You might not be up for exercise. That is so. Intense where it leaves you super sweaty. You might not have time in your season or that day to be in the [00:05:00] word for an hour. But he still wants you to come to him. And people that are stuck in that all or nothing mentality, which is very common with the clients that I work with and very common in diet culture.
They're like, if I can't do things to the extent that I want to do them, then I'm not gonna do anything. If I can't do things to the extent that God deserves, then I'm not gonna do anything but. God desires, whatever you're able to give him, and he will multiply it.
And even this woman giving two coins, it was all she had. It was all she had, but it was more meaningful to God than people that were able to give out of their wealth. So of course, if people have like a ton of time and all this free time, of course they're able to give more of their time to God and, and they should be.
But it's meaningful to God. Like if you're a busy mom with a newborn baby and you posture your heart for 60 seconds to the Lord and pray to him and acknowledge [00:06:00] him as you're breastfeeding,, or as you're waiting at a red light, he will meet you there and that's meaningful to him. And he just has this multiplying effect.
And so it's less about what you're giving and more about giving whatever you have and not withholding, because that little boy who had the five loaves and two fish could have said, this isn't enough to feed 5,000 men. Not even not including the women and children that were there, but. He gave it to the disciples in Jesus anyway and said, here's what I have.
And look what God was able to do with it. He was able to multiply it. The story of Gideon, we see this in Judges six. The Lord calls him and he said, well, I'm the weakest one. Uh, are you calling me? And the Lord says, give me what you have. Give me the strength that you have, and I will take care of the rest, and [00:07:00] I will be with you.
So give God your 3%. He will make up the 97%. Give God what you have and watch him multiply it even if you only have 60 seconds to posture your heart towards the Lord. And maybe you didn't get in the word. You haven't done a devotional in a while or a Bible study. You haven't been to Bible study, you haven't been to church in a while, but you posture your heart towards the Lord for 60 seconds.
That will give you so much peace. Peace beyond your understanding. That 60 seconds with the Lord is faith the size of a mustard seed that it will do something and those 60 seconds can change your energy, can change your perspective,
can increase your awareness of God moving in your life, changing your heart. It can quiet settle your spirit. Be still and know that he is God. Give God what you have. Release the expectations of what you think you should be doing because. [00:08:00] What works for you and your relationship with God in this season might look different than a previous season.
And I also think that we need to release our expectations when it comes to our healthy lifestyle too. I have clients say, oh, I can't meal prep 'cause I don't have time to prep all of my meals. Oh, I'm not asking you to prep all of your meals, but can you prep an afternoon snack? Pre-portioned that out?
Can you just prep your lunch or prep a couple dinners so that when you get home from the end of the day, you don't have to cook from scratch? Something is better than nothing. Fed is best, right? Some movement is better than no movement. You might not have time to go to the gym for an hour. You might not have time to go to a Pilates class, but you may have time to, do some body weight exercises at home, or do a YouTube workout, or go for a walk around the block.
Again, something is better than nothing. Give God what you have and watch him multiply it what I start to see when it comes to clients doing this with their healthy lifestyle, not just their quiet time with God, but starting small and not being afraid of starting small with their goals, but working up to [00:09:00] it with time.
Like, Hey, I really want to work out, four to five times a week for 30 to 45 minutes or maybe an hour, but I can't do that right now. I'm not gonna go from zero to 100 because that hasn't been sustainable for me in the past. So I'm just gonna start with twice a week, walking for 30 minutes during my lunch break.
Okay, perfect. That's an hour per week number one. That's amazing. Praise God for that. And then eventually that builds momentum in your life. You're like, okay, I set a goal and I followed through on it. You build trust back with yourself.
That just builds momentum in your life. And then that becomes easier. You see that it's easy to fit these things in, and you start to see other ways to get more movement in. Your endurance starts to increase and you're like, I could do more. I could handle more. I could walk longer. I could walk faster. I can do more days per week, and that spirals from there, so God will multiply it.
I have one client who, is really trying to get more steps in and she's trying to specifically get more steps in on the days that she's not working because it's really easy on her work days 'cause she's on her feet with her job. [00:10:00] And it's just been so cool to see how the Lord has organically been increasing her step goal.
She was like, yeah, I just trying to get 4,000 steps a day on my off days because I'm hitting that on my work days. Okay, great. Now that goal has become easy for her and then we increased. It's like 4,500 and then 5,000, and then, , 5,500 steps a day. It is slowly increasing.
And I have another client that has done the same thing, and now she's up to very easily 10,000 steps a day. Some days she gets 12,000 as a busy full-time working mom of multiple children. I think she's got three children. She's married and she has her elderly mother living with her.
So she's very busy. And she's been able to. Get 10,000 steps in a day, like seamlessly., It's so inspiring to see how God builds momentum and multiplies our time.
Like we think like, oh, there's no way I could fit that in. Give him what you have and watch him multiply it and build on that. And that's how you build sustainable habits. You do that with the Lord and , that's how you get out of that all or nothing [00:11:00] mentality. We have to stop. I hear this all the time, from therapists,
we have to stop shoulding on ourself. Like I should be doing more when we have such high expectations when we make the barrier for entry so high makes it intimidating and not easy to follow through on. So do what you can and the Lord can work with that, but he can't work with it if you're just not doing anything and you're completely resisting and retreating.
So I pray that this is, impactful to you, and I just pray that you can meditate on this scripture and allow the Lord to minister to you in your life. What ways are you holding back or withholding from God and in what areas of your life can you give him your 2 cents, your two coins? Even if it's small, it doesn't seem like enough because it's meaningful and enough for God, because it's not about the amount.
It's about that sacrifice. It's about giving what you have, and it's about whose hands you're putting it in. [00:12:00] You're putting it in God's multiplying hands. And the way that God does math, it doesn't make sense to us. We put in two coins. We get so much we get, you know, we put, we put in five loaves, two fish, we get 12 basketfuls back and leftovers.
He does exceedingly and abundantly more than we could ask, think, or imagine. I praise God. So I pray that this is helpful for you, and if you need help healing your relationship with food, with a faith-based approach and want a more personalized approach to all of this, head to the show notes and see the different ways to work with me, and I'll see y'all next week.
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