Devotion & Prayer

 

“1 Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him. 3 Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. 4 But Judas Iscariot, one of His disciples, who was intending to betray Him, said, 5 ‘Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and given to poor people?’ 6 Now he said this, not because he was concerned about the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he had the money box, he used to pilfer what was put into it. 7 Therefore Jesus said, ‘Let her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of My burial.  8 ‘For you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me.’"                    John 12:1-8

As Jesus approaches the final week of his life, He visits again with His close friends, Martha, Mary and Lazarus in Bethany for a meal. Along with Him are many of His disciples (see Matthew 26:8), including Judas Iscariot, who was soon to betray Him. The highlight of the meal was the costly perfume with which Mary chose to anoint the feet of Jesus, prompting a negative response from Judas Iscariot and some other disciples, according to the account in Matthew’s gospel. Jesus’s response to the disciples’ objections gives us deeper understanding into the importance of this moment with reference to His upcoming death. “For you always have the poor, but you do not always have Me.” Mary was demonstrating a devotion to Jesus that even His closest disciples were challenged by.

The pure nard was a fragrant oil prepared from the roots and stems of an aromatic herb from northern India. It was an expensive perfume, imported in sealed alabaster boxes or flasks which were opened only on special occasions. Mary's lavish gift expressed her love and thanks to Jesus for restoring Lazarus to life. The house was filled with the fragrance. Our willingness to sacrifice our best is a sweet aroma to God! We can glean from the implications of the fragrance by taking a look at the Old Testament and in particular, the Tabernacle.

Holy anointing oil

In Exodus 30:22-33, God instructed Moses to create the “holy anointing oil to Me (to be used) throughout your generations” (vs 31). It was made of four fragrant spices to be used to dedicate, to consecrate the high priest, Aaron and his sons to minister as priests as well as to anoint the tent of meeting, the ark of the covenant, and all of the altars, tables, lampstands, and utensils. The sweet aroma of the mixture is representative of the fragrance God smells when a believer lives a life that commands devotion, consecration, holiness, if you will. Our purpose-filled life to honor God’s personal investment in each of us in the midst of a corrupt world and a fallen nature produces a sanctified commitment to the Divine Will. The structure of the new covenant provides each believer, through the sacrificial offering of Christ, an ability to operate as forgiven priests of the Most High God.

Not only was the holy anointing oil made to have a fragrant aroma, but God’s instructions to create the incense to be used on the altar of incense was made like a perfume, “the work of a perfumer” (Exodus 30:34-38). The particular mixture was intended to be only for the Lord, holy, meaning that it should only be reserved for God. When we set aside something important as unto the Lord, it creates a sweet aroma in God’s nostril. In Ephesians 5:1-2, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma”. Our commitment to walk in His love represents our willingness to sacrifice ourselves to God’s highest priority: loving others.

The good part

One definition of devotion is “an earnest attachment to a cause or person”. In Luke’s gospel, Mary revealed this devotion to Jesus in Luke 10:38-42. Jesus visited this same house of Martha and Mary and found Martha preparing for the meal they were about to partake, but Mary was “seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His words”. Martha complained that Mary wasn’t helping with the work, but Jesus pointed out Martha’s error by saying, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things, but only one thing is necessary”. In the midst of many details, Mary had chosen the right priority, “the good part”. Her devotion was on display for all of us to observe.

“Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.”   John 17:17-19

Jesus’s prayer to His Father the night before He died in John 17 reveals His heart for His disciples and the need for them to be sanctified (hagiozoe – set apart for a sacred purpose), and that the Word of God would be the vehicle by which that process would be accomplished (vs. 17). Each disciple is sent into the world by Jesus Christ as His representative for a divine purpose through the truth of God’s Word to fulfill His will as His witnesses (Acts 1:8). This consecration is accompanied by God’s ability, His power, His anointing. Ultimately, when we are sent out with this divine covering, the results will always belong to God and not to us (Ephesians 2:10).

Do not be entangled

Paul helps us understand an important principle in being set apart for a higher purpose. In 2Timothy 2:3-7, he uses a soldier and his willingness to give up his freedoms to accomplish his superior’s purpose by not allowing himself to be entangled in the affairs of everyday life. It reminds me of the parable of the sower and the seed in Matthew 13 and the seed sown among the thorns that represent “the worry of the world and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word”. The second metaphor is as an athlete who commits himself completely to the rules, to the game, to the ultimate goal, not allowing distractions to keep him from God’s intentions. 

“Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness? But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.”  Romans 6:16-18 

Paul defines for us the key ingredient in finding devotion to the Divine Will and therefore a real victory over the power of sin in Romans 6 when he says, “you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed”. It means that a sincere, wholehearted and honest commitment to the teaching (doctrine) received as truth will result in a victory over sin’s corruption and the believer will begin to experience in a practical way the righteousness of God. In Romans 1:17, Paul is referring to the gospel when he says, “In it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, ‘BUT THE RIGHTEOUS man SHALL LIVE BY FAITH’”. Experiencing God’s righteousness is realized every moment we live by faith, trusting God.

Effective prayer

“The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”       James 5:16 

The righteous man has found the devotion that draws him near to His God and it brings him to his knees when he realizes that it is God that accomplishes much as a result of effective prayer. The Greek word for effective is energeo and it means operative, at work. One major way the new covenant believer realizes the Divine Will is that his devotion produces activity, action, work and one major aspect of this work is prayer. Devotion produces an earnestness as it says in verse 17 that results in God answering prayers. In 1John 5:14-15, John declares, “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.” The prayers of the saints are like the burning of incense in the Tabernacle as Revelation 5:8 defines and they produce a wonderful aroma to God.

Jesus taught His disciples about the importance of prayer in Luke 18:1-8 by emphasizing the principle of unceasing prayer. In 1Thessalonians 5:17, the Scriptures teach us to pray without ceasing. There is no guarantee that God will answer our prayers within a certain timeframe; in fact, He usually wants us to learn how to wait. Our persistence in prayer ties us to the perfect will of God since we have learned how to wait for it by continuing to pray. In Luke 18:8, Jesus wants us to exhibit this kind of faith; this kind of faith is contagious. 

Jesus, our intercessor

We take our example to pray from Jesus Himself, who was continually praying for His Father’s will while here as the Son of Man. Now, seated at the right hand of the Father, He is always making intercession for “those who draw near to God” (Hebrews 7:25) as part of His Eternal High Priesthood. Our devotion to Him in prayer is possible because of His demonstrated devotion to each believer. In Romans 8:34, Paul says, “who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us”. It is that kind of support that gives each believer the devotion to stay the course.

“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. For we are a fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing; to the one an aroma from death to death, to the other an aroma from life to life. And who is adequate for these things?”             2 Corinthians 2:14-16

Paul tells us that the one who stays the course is being led in triumph in Christ, within the veil of that sacred relationship and produces that fragrance not only to God, but as a ministry to the present world he occupies. His fragrance is a reflection of the sweet aroma that Christ manifests to His Father and this new covenant relationship  makes us adequate as His representatives in this present world.