The Joy of Open Hands
by: Richman Priestley
March 3, 2026
“And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength”
This is the Great Commandment, in which Jesus calls us to love Him wholeheartedly with all of our lives. He says this because this is how He has loved us. He spared nothing in His love for us, and He calls His people to do the same. He doesn’t want to be confined to the “spiritual” box in our lives, only meant to be uncovered when we do our daily devotional or when we attend church. God, in His fiery love, has much more for us than that. He wants to give us a new life, one that deeply satisfies, one that is exciting, and one where we truly experience Him in our everyday lives.
We must push past the lifeless version of careless and numb Christianity that entraps many people today. We must press into the scriptures to discover areas where we have settled for subpar spirituality. As followers of Jesus, we want Him to be adored and glorified in every area of our lives. Notice in that verse that Jesus urges us to love Him with all of our strength. Loving Him with all of our strength includes our money, time, energy, and resources. Generosity is one of these areas where we can love Him with all of our strength. Nobody is more generous than God. We see this throughout the Bible. However, there is a specific place that strikes a chord within the human heart. John 3:16 says this “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son...”
In Genesis 15:1, the Lord makes a most beautiful statement to Abram, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” Wow, what a statement. Abram's greatest blessing wasn’t what God would do through him, or what God would entrust to him, but rather God’s greatest reward to Abram was the fellowship he would share with Him. Intimacy is the greatest blessing God could ever give us. For us today, the primary reward for generosity should not be for the Lord to give us recognition and fame, or a supernatural increase in our finances, but rather a supernatural increase in our relationship with God. God Himself is the ultimate reward.
Knowing Him and the discovery of His heart is the greatest treasure this life has to offer. The more we experience intimacy with God, the less we crave the things this world has to offer. When we give radically into the hands of the Lord, it doesn’t merely affect our bank account— a trade takes place in our heart, between us and God. What a marvelous opportunity we have through giving.
“Now when Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came up to him with an alabaster flask of very expensive ointment, and she poured it on his head as he reclined at the table. And when the disciples saw it, they were indignant, saying, ‘Why this waste? For this could have been sold for a large sum and given to the poor.’But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, ‘Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to Me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have Me. In pouring this ointment on My body, she has done it to prepare Me for burial. Truly, I say to you, wherever this gospel is proclaimed in the whole world, what she has done will also be told in memory of her’” (ESV, Matthew 26:6-13).
This is one of the most beautiful pictures of generosity anywhere in the Bible. It is said that the cost of the perfume Mary poured onto Jesus amounted to an entire year's wages. Even so, without hesitation, Mary poured this costly perfume on Jesus’ head. This was an act that was so extravagant that it even offended the people who were closest to Jesus. Nevertheless, Jesus said this was beautiful in His eyes and rushed to defend her. I believe that these are the type of people God is actively searching for. The type of people who won’t just give Jesus a costly offering when it's popular, but even when it's unpopular.
He is looking for the ones who don’t settle for status-quo Christianity; the ones who aren’t content with the bare minimum requirements of the Christian life; the ones who aren’t looking to bring Him a half-hearted offering. Rather, He is searching for the desperate ones, the ones who will give everything to Him freely, not holding back any area of their life. He is searching for those with a heart of David who proclaimed: “I will not offer burnt offerings to the Lord my God that cost me nothing” (ESV, 2 Samuel 24:24).
Some people may settle for basic obedience. However, Mary tapped into something here that goes way beyond obedience. She did not do this act because Jesus told her to; it was because she was so in love that she couldn’t help but demonstrate it.Let us be those people who, out of the overflow of desperate hearts, offer to the Lord the costliest offerings we can create, simply because we are in love.Let me ask you, will you join the cry of heaven that refuses to give the Lord a mediocre offering? Maybe the Holy Spirit is speaking to you now, asking you to step out and trust Him. Maybe there is someone in your life that God is asking you to bless financially in a way that makes you uncomfortable. Maybe it's something else He is asking you to bless. Whatever it may be, open up your heart to Him. Ask Him to take you on the journey of a life of radical generosity. Few choose it, but the ones who do don’t regret it. God will not let you down.
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This is the Great Commandment, in which Jesus calls us to love Him wholeheartedly with all of our lives. He says this because this is how He has loved us. He spared nothing in His love for us, and He calls His people to do the same. He doesn’t want to be confined to the “spiritual” box in our lives, only meant to be uncovered when we do our daily devotional or when we attend church. God, in His fiery love, has much more for us than that. He wants to give us a new life, one that deeply satisfies, one that is exciting, and one where we truly experience Him in our everyday lives.