Feeling the Pinch?

In 1 Chronicles 21, David sinfully numbered Israel (1 Chr 21:1), to God's great displeasure (1 Chr 21:7), and it proved costly. David repented, so, by way of atonement, an angel of YHWH commanded the prophet, Gad, to tell David to go build an altar to YHWH on the threshing floor of Ornan, the Jebusite (1 Chr 21:18). So David went to Ornan and asked to buy his threshing floor to build an altar there. Ornan told the king, "Take it for yourself. I'll even give you the oxen to sacrifice" (1 Chr 21:22-23) David's response is interesting. He insisted that he pay full price, "I will not take what is yours for the LORD, or offer a burnt offering which costs me nothing" (1 Chr 21:24). David understood that sacrifice to God ... required sacrifice.

Fast forward some 450 years or so (a guestimate). Jesus was in the temple with His disciples. The rich put in bags of money, but the poor widow put in two small copper coins (Luke 21:1-4). Jesus told His disciples,

"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 to live on." (Luke 21:3-4)

What about you? (I ask about you only because I'm asking about myself.) Do we put in out of our surplus, or do we ... sacrifice. Are we willing, unlike David, to essentially make an offering to God that costs us nothing, or do we give 'til it hurts? Do we see our resources as our resources that, when we're feeling generous (or guilty), we hand some of the extra over to God, or do we see it as God's resources that we owe completely to Him, even if, like the widow, we might not have enough to live on? Are we willing to give to God as long as it doesn't pinch too much, or do we rely on God to supply our needs, so we can give what costs us a lot? Here, let's ask it this way. Which do we love more ... God or "mammon" -- wealth (Luke 16:13)?