Daily Devotional for Tuesday 9th July
Extravagant Devotion
I have at home a 12-year-old Aberfeldy bottle of whisky. It was a gift from my brother for my birthday about 6 or 7 years ago. It’s not exactly a year's wages (more like £35), but if someone said “Can you pour this away?” The answer would definitely be no. It’s very precious to me because whenever I drink it on a special occasion, I think of my brother and how important he is to me. It also tastes really good! Now, I imagine a bottle of whiskey or wine being worth £30,000 and then pouring it away. I can imagine the despair and anger on my wife’s face (she would have probably lost her mind to find out I bought a bottle for that much money any way!) if I just threw it away. Interestingly, in this story, Jesus saw what the woman did with her extremely expensive perfume as a beautiful thing whilst onlookers were angry and/or discombobulated.
We often talk about giving Jesus everything in songs and our bible readings, but what do we mean by this? We see countless times in the bible where people demonstrate this beautifully. The widow who gave 2 copper coins (Mark 12:41-44), Peter stepping out of the boat (Matthew 14:29) and when David danced for God and was prepared to humiliate himself to worship Him (2 Samuel 6:22). There was a cost to all of these things. Dignity, financial, and even safety. These people in the bible demonstrated that when we truly give our all to Jesus, we are always blessed by God for our act of faith.
The woman with the perfume clearly saw something about Jesus that was worthy of her most expensive perfume. This perfume would have been important for ceremonies and her financial status. She gave up all of that to worship Him. She held none of it back.
After she did this, the people around criticised her for wasting it when it could have been used to feed the poor. I don’t know about you but I often get annoyed when celebrities spend £300,000+ on a car when they could have spent that money on helping the poor. We are so quick to judge other peoples actions and how others spend their money, but when I think about what I have given, I am challenged. Do I hold back my wealth for myself and buy a nice bottle of whiskey by walking straight past a homeless person on the way to the shops or am I giving it to Jesus and saying “Lord, you gave me this, I give it back to you”. I’m not saying give everything you own away or never buy a nice scotch whisky ever again. That would be irresponsible and reckless. But what God wants is for us to not hold onto what we have with clenched fists, but to hold them with open hands so Jesus can use them for His glory and our good. “For God works through all things And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose”. (Romans 8:28). God wants to use us for His glory and the way He does this is by us first opening our fists and saying, “Jesus, here is my open hand”.
The world of the stingy gets smaller and smaller, but the world of the generous gets larger and larger. (Proverbs 11:24-26). Make your world bigger and consider what you can give to the Lord.
Time to reflect…
What are we holding back from God that would bless Him? How can we worship Jesus with the things that we have?
Pause to pray…
Father God, we are sorry for not giving you everything as worship to you. Help us to see how we can give to you financially, with our time, our resources, and with our energy. Give us wisdom to know how we can bless you and put you first in our lives. In Jesus' name, we pray, Amen.
