Be Willing

What are you willing to give to others? Are you willing to give something expensive to help someone else? Would you give up a prize possession if someone was in need of it? Does the situation make a difference in your decision? What are you willing to give God?

Giving to others may be easy if we are giving from our abundance. We take clothes, home furnishings, books, tools, and more to charitable organizations for those in need, but only those things we no longer plan to use. We will not typically give something that is of value to us.

God does not always present us a situation in which we are asked to give up something we treasure. However, we may be put in that situation. If we are, how will we act? We might like to think that we would give up anything for God, but we do not know that we will until we are faced with that decision.

A woman gives up something very expensive. The word translated as ointment in today’s passage can also be translated as perfume or myrrh. It has been estimated that the filled jar was worth a year’s wages. That is a costly gift. Besides the monetary value, there were other uses for the ointment.

In Mark’s account, Jesus was sitting around the table, meaning the group was likely about to eat. Yet, this woman pours this fragrant ointment over Jesus. Considering the amount of ointment, the entire house would have smelled of it. The smell may have been nearly overpowering in the room in which He sat.

We may also be put in a situation in which something very costly is asked of us. We need to remember this woman at that time. We also should remember that nothing of this world will remain when Jesus comes again. All that we currently possess will disappear. None of it will have a place in eternity. What will have a place is our willingness to serve God.

I pray we all evaluate how much we hold on to the things of this world. I pray we are willing to give to those in need. I pray each one of us are willing to serve God, especially when it means giving up possessions. Be willing. Evaluate your attitude. Give as God desires. Serve God.

Matthew 26:6-7 Now while Jesus was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very costly ointment, and she poured it on his head as he sat at the table.