Monday 13 Aug 2012

Monday Reading: John 12:1-3

Key Verse: John 12:3
3  Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair: and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment.

Devotion:
We all like to show our love for and toward others in different ways. I guess we all like to buy gifts for others to show part of that love; or even to make gifts for others; but would you be willing to give all that you have in order to show your love for someone? Our first answer would be “yes” when we thought of that someone special in our lives but actually carrying out what we say could be entirely different. When push comes to shove we may well crumble instead.

Mary and Martha displayed their love for Christ in very different ways; when we study the difference between their displays of love we tend to pick sides. What side we pick depends on how we view God’s Word and how we view man’s feelings. If we are going to lift man’s feeling above God’s Word, then we would probably take sides with Martha and say that Mary was the one being lazy or even wasteful. On the other hand if we side with God’s Word we would probably side with Mary’s ways because she showed her love for Christ as Lord of Lords instead of a man.

When we are faced with circumstances in our own lives we do not always take time out to study things through but rather jump to conclusions based on our feelings at the time. It was Judas who first came forward to complain about Mary doing what he thought was wasteful at the time. Martha did not complain like that because she knew that what she was doing was in some way displaying her love for her Lord. Judas on the other hand was thinking about the monetary waste; his mind was focused on the love of money rather than the love of Christ. It is little wonder then that we are told that the love for money is the root of evil.

Showing your love for others is a very complex subject and the closer we get to the time for Christ to return, the more complex it will probably become. You see, the evil one will continue to make things more difficult so that he can disrupt the love that Christ wants us to share with others; his goal would be to try to break down all that Christ is trying to build up in us. Don’t let the evil one win just because someone says you should act in their way instead of following God’s way.

Points to Ponder:
How do you display your love?

Are you reserving your love for Christ?