Blog Archives

Daily Devotion

7/29/2016

Crossway Communications
Betsy Howard
"Hunger"

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!
Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him! Psalm 34:8

As I waited in the checkout line, I overheard the little girl behind me talking to her mother. “Ooh, can I have this?” she said, fingering what can only be described as a tube of fluorescent green goo. “No way,” her mother said, “that’s pure sugar.”

There are lots of things that look tasty to us when we are young that have no appeal once our tastes have matured. Likewise, foods that small children scorn are sought-after delicacies for adults. Why? Because some tastes are acquired. As the French proverb says, “Appetite comes with eating.”

The same is true of our spiritual appetites. Shallow amusements are naturally more appealing than a nourishing diet of God’s word. We crave all sorts of things that are harmful to our souls, from juicy gossip to satisfying revenge. But while sin and empty pleasures may taste good, they lead to decay and deterioration rather than strength.

If we make the choice to taste the goodness of the Lord through his Word, we will find our tastes changing as we discover his excellencies. Just as someone who appreciates a fine steak would choose it over a lollipop, as you grow in knowledge and love of God, you will find an increasing desire to choose what will build you up spiritually rather than tear you down.

Perhaps you’ve experienced this. Maybe it once felt like a chore to memorize Scripture, but now it is a delight. Or perhaps you’ve had to discipline yourself to attend church regularly, but now you can’t wait to hear the preaching of God’s word. That’s because you’ve developed a taste for it!

If you don’t currently have any desire for spiritual nourishment, take a step of faith in obedience to God’s command: “Taste and see that the Lord is good!” Choose to spend time in prayer and Bible reading. Choose to obey his commands rather than the desires of your flesh. Choose to make him your refuge by trusting the righteousness of Christ. Then wait in hope and joyful expectation of tasting the goodness of the Lord.

Suggestions for Prayer

Confess to God the things that you crave that are detrimental to the health of your spiritual life.
Meditate on one of God’s promises that shows his goodness.
Pray that God will increase your desire for all that is holy.

Betsy Childs Howard is an editor for the Gospel Coalition. She previously worked at Beeson Divinity School and Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. In addition to being a regular contributor to the Gospel Coalition website and First Things, she is the author of Seasons of Waiting: Walking by Faith When Dreams Are Delayed.

Daily Devotion

7/28/2016

Crossway Communications
Betsy Howard
"Assurance"

Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
Matthew 7:9-11

Jesus knew how to give a vivid illustration. This is one of those Scripture passages that goes deeper and deeper the more you think about it. First, he assures us that God, our Father, wants to give good gifts to us when we ask him. That may sound obvious, but how many of us truly believe that deep down? Don’t many of us think that God is more interested in giving us what we deserve?

Second, Jesus tells us that our Father will not give us something bad if we ask for something good. God will never try to trick you. What father, when his daughter comes to him for her dinner, would throw a snake at her? That might be something a bad brother would do, but not a good father!

The third assurance is not one Jesus directly states; it’s a logical inference. He has said that if you ask for a fish, your Father will not give you a snake. But what if you ask for a snake? What if you, being a little child, don’t know that snakes bite, and you think they are pretty, so you ask your father for one. Would a good father give his child a snake that will bite her? No, he won’t.

We ask God for a lot of things that he knows will harm our souls. Sometimes we ask for things that will make us feel good, but will keep us from experiencing some better gift that God has for us. We may be asking for something that he is not yet ready to give us. And so he says no to our request. What a good and loving Father we have! He does not mechanically answer our prayers, but instead he responds to them with wisdom, love, and kindness to fulfill all of his purposes for and in us.

Suggestions for Prayer

Ask God to help you believe that he wants to give you good gifts.
Thank God for a time when he withheld from you something that, in hindsight, you can see would have been harmful to you.
Ask God to help you trust him when he withholds something you’ve prayed for.

Betsy Childs Howard is an editor for the Gospel Coalition. She previously worked at Beeson Divinity School and Ravi Zacharias International Ministries. In addition to being a regular contributor to the Gospel Coalition website and First Things, she is the author of Seasons of Waiting: Walking by Faith When Dreams Are Delayed.

Daily Devotion

7/27/2016

Crossway Communications
Megan Hill
"Unity"

All these [disciples] with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers. Acts 1:14

German pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote, “It is in fact the most normal thing in the common Christian life to pray together.” And nowhere has this been more evident than in the practice of the early church.

If we pay attention as we read the book of Acts, we will notice corporate prayer everywhere. The Christians prayed together at mealtimes (2:46), in the temple (3:1), when persecuted (4:23-31), when sending out gospel workers (13:1-3), and when appointing church leaders (14:23). We find them praying on beaches (21:5-6), at river banks (16:13), onboard ships (27:35-38), and in their homes (2:42-47). For these saints, praying together was the most normal thing in the world.

Today’s verse describes one of the earliest of these prayer meetings. Just prior to this gathering, the resurrected Jesus ascended into heaven, leaving his followers with a promise--“you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you”--and a task--“you will be my witnesses” (1:8). And so it is not surprising that we find them praying together, asking God to fulfill his promise and to equip them for the work ahead.

In our day, the church receives the same promise and the same mission from Christ her Lord. Each of our local churches is tasked with gospel-proclamation--witnessing to the perfect life, atoning death, and triumphant resurrection of Christ--and is assured of the Holy Spirit’s help. Like the Christians two thousand years ago, our mission is demanding and urgent. Like the Christians two thousand years ago, we have much to pray about together.

It is important to notice in this verse who was participating in the time of prayer. We rightly expect the disciples to be present, but we also read that “the women” and Jesus’s mother and brothers were there too. Praying together is important work for everyone who belongs to Christ. No matter your age, your gender, or your theological knowledge, you have an important place in corporate prayer.

Finally, we see the foundation of their practice: the Bible tells us Christ’s followers devoted themselves to praying together. At a glance many of the early church’s prayer meetings appear to have happened spontaneously, but the Christians’ inclination to bow together in prayer was first fueled by their intentional devotion to the practice. They prayed together at every opportunity because they were already convinced that it was a priority. We, too, must remind ourselves of our glorious mission and devote ourselves to the important work of prayer that upholds every other task.

Brothers and sisters, let us pray.

Suggestions for Prayer

Thank God for the example of the early church’s practice of praying together and for the many occasions of corporate prayer in your own life.
Confess to God the times when you have neglected opportunities to pray with your Christian brothers and sisters.
Ask God to enable you to devote yourself to praying with others.

Megan Hill is a pastor’s wife and a pastor’s daughter who has spent her life praying with others. She serves on the editorial board for Christianity Today and is a regular contributor to Her.meneutics and the Gospel Coalition. She is the author of Praying Together: The Priority and Privilege of Prayer In Our Homes, Communities, and Churches.

Daily Devotion

7/26/2016

Crossway Communications
Gloria Furman
"Nurture"

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:4-5

Naturally, women evaluate their potential for childbearing by things they can see. We take into account things like our marital status, age, genetics, health, fertility, and access to reproductive technology.

Supernaturally, as women who have been born again into the new creation, we understand that our nurturing abilities find their fulfillment as we make disciples of Jesus. A Christian woman’s potential to nurture spiritual life is not connected to biological markers or marriage. Women who are part of the new humanity look to Christ, see his unparalleled potential to multiply his offspring, and make disciples by his Spirit.

Where can we go to see Christ’s power and gain confidence in him to make disciples?

In just a few short verses at the beginning of John’s gospel, we learn that Jesus is deity and he is the beginning-- the Creator of all things. Now, in verses 4 and 5, John is starting to explain how Jesus is also the source and inaugurator of a new creation. By the Word of God, light shone into the darkness at the first creation. Once again, by the Word of God, divine light is now shining, but this time it shines on men who are lost in darkness and gives them new life.

The people of Israel were told that this Light was coming: “. . . darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples; but the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you” (Isa. 60:2-3). This “light of men” would not be for only one people group, but for the whole world. Isaiah foretold that the nations would come to see the brightness of his rising.

Jesus is the Creator of the cosmos, and he is the source of the new creation as well. The darkness did not overcome Jesus at the first creation. Surely this present darkness will not overcome Jesus now as he is giving new creation life to men, women, and children across the globe, causing them to be born again into his new humanity.

We cannot possibly be overconfident in Christ’s ability to fulfill his mission. We have every reason to be incurably hopeful as we make disciples. Do not look to the things you can see to measure your potential for ministry. Do not look to the news headlines to evaluate the effectiveness of missions. Do not look to your biology to envision your impact in the kingdom. Do not look to your fertility to conceive of what Christ can do through you in raising up spiritual offspring.

The divine Light who has broken into the darkness of this world, and the new creation that is coming in his wake, will surely overcome every shadow in every corner of the globe. Jesus is delighted to call and equip women to nurture life as he creates a new humanity, multiplies his offspring, and subdues the darkness.

Suggestions for Prayer

Pray that God would give you eyes to see his Son’s ongoing, insurmountable work in this dark world.
Pray that God would grant mercy to your lost neighbors, friends, and family, and that he would use you to shine the light of Christ in their lives.
Pray that God would strengthen your faith and build your confidence in Christ, granting you boldness to announce his gospel.

Gloria Furman is a wife, mother of four, cross-cultural worker, and writer. In 2008 her family moved to the Middle East to plant Redeemer Church of Dubai where her husband, Dave, serves as the pastor. She is the author of Glimpses of Grace, Treasuring Christ When Your Hands Are Full, The Pastor’s Wife, Missional Motherhood, and Alive in Him (forthcoming).

Daily Devotion

7/25/2016

Crossway Communications
Megan Hill
"Petition"

Pray then like this: "Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil."Matthew 6:9-13

We often think of prayer primarily as a solitary activity. We might picture a lone woman bowing her head behind closed doors or a single child on her knees at the foot of her bed. Such private prayer is important, and Jesus clearly taught this practice both by his example (Mark 1:35) and his teaching (Matt. 6:6).

But Jesus also taught his disciples to pray together as people in relationship with the Father and therefore in relationship with one another. Today’s passage, which we often call the Lord’s Prayer, may be so familiar to us that we miss the fact that this prayer is not a private prayer but a corporate one. By giving us this prayer, Jesus is teaching us to pray together.

First, we see here that corporate prayer is not optional. Jesus has just finished giving two instructions about prayer that each begin, “when you pray” (vv. 6, 7) and he introduces his climatic lesson with “Pray then like this” (v. 9). This is not a lesson for if you pray; it is a lesson for when you pray. We should remember this as we interact with others in our homes and communities and churches: praying together is something Jesus expects us to do.

Next, we notice that Jesus’s language in the prayer is consistently corporate. “Our Father,” it begins, and is quickly followed by petitions for “our daily bread,” the forgiveness of “our debts,” and God’s deliverance of “us” from evil (vv. 9, 11, 12, 13). So, too, when we pray together, we should use corporate words. When one person prays aloud in a group, everyone present is joining her heart “with one accord” (Acts 1:14). One person may be speaking but all are praying. Our language should reflect that.

Finally, we see that Jesus teaches us to pray for common concerns. Each of his disciples had individual struggles, particular needs, and unique circumstances, and yet Jesus taught them to pray together primarily for the needs and desires which they all shared. He instructed them to pray for God’s glory and his kingdom’s advancement because those are the first priorities of every Christian’s heart. Beyond that, Jesus taught them to ask for their daily needs to be met, their sins forgiven, and their souls protected from the devices of the Evil One. Though we can certainly mention specific personal needs in group prayer, casting our shared burdens on the Lord together fosters our mutual love for one another and for our heavenly Father who hears us all.

And all God’s people said, “Amen.”

Suggestions for Prayer

Thank God for teaching you to pray with other Christians.
Confess the times you have failed to pray helpfully--or at all!--with believers in your home, community, and church.
Ask God to use this passage to teach you to pray with others clearly and corporately for their good and His glory.

Megan Hill is a pastor’s wife and a pastor’s daughter who has spent her life praying with others. She serves on the editorial board for Christianity Today and is a regular contributor to Her.meneutics and the Gospel Coalition. She is the author of Praying Together: The Priority and Privilege of Prayer In Our Homes, Communities, and Churches.

Daily Devotion

7/22/2016

Crossway Communications
Gloria Furman
"HOME"

For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Hebrews 13:14

“I just want to feel settled.”

We may voice this expression with a sigh of longing or a sting of bitter lament. Does this desire to be settled find echoes in your own heart?

The prospect of settling down captivates us. We’re preoccupied by that nagging, aching sense of uprootedness. We feel that we ought to have this unsettled feeling settled. And no wonder, for we were made for a lasting city. The problem is not with our feeling unsettled. The problem is with our settling for the feeling of being settled. We are citizens of a city that has foundations, whose designer and architect is God. The new creation is more than a feeling.

But for now, we live here, pilgriming on our way to the celestial city. Like a heckling salesman who calls out to passersby, the world offers us various forms of relief. Consumerism, perhaps, is the world’s loudest siren song. “You don’t feel settled? This stuff will make you feel settled.” Put a Christian-sounding twist on it, and the siren song lulls us into worldly contentment, “This stuff will turn your home into your refuge.”

Generation by generation, the people of Israel were exhorted to make God their refuge. Whether they were settled in the land flowing with milk and honey, or uprooted in captivity, the Lord was to be their refuge. We, too, as “aliens and strangers” in this world that is passing away, need to remember that here we have no lasting city but we seek the city that is to come. Our home is not our refuge; God is our refuge. The consequences of forgetting this are grim. In our quest to consume enough stuff to make our home our refuge, we are consumed. In time, we may come to live for the kingdom we can see with our eyes, instead of the one that Jesus assured us is on its way.

When we are confident that we have no lasting city here, we are not devastated when our stuff crumbles to pieces or our earthly home is moved. When we seek the city that is to come, we free our homes from the shackles of being our refuge. We will model to our children that home is where Christ is. Our homes will be less like retreats and more like networks of foxholes for planning and hosting kingdom advances into this present darkness.

Fixate on numbing the desire to feel settled here, and you may miss the opportunity to have a holy discontentment with this world that is passing away. Set your heart on the city that is to come, and see the missional leverage of your home and resources bear fruit that lasts in eternity.

Suggestions for Prayer

Pray God would cultivate gratefulness in your heart for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken.
Pray God would show you the ways you have longed for a worldly kingdom, and repent.
Pray God would give you a longing for the city that is to come, and a desire to use your resources in light of the coming kingdom.

Gloria Furman is a wife, mother of four, cross-cultural worker, and writer. In 2008 her family moved to the Middle East to plant Redeemer Church of Dubai where her husband, Dave, serves as the pastor. She is the author of Glimpses of Grace, Treasuring Christ When Your Hands Are Full, The Pastor’s Wife, Missional Motherhood, and Alive in Him (forthcoming).

Daily Devotion

7/21/2016

Crossway Communications
Kathleen B. Nielson
"FEAR"

. . . if the foundations are destroyed,
what can the righteous do?
For the LORD is righteous;
he loves righteous deeds;
The upright shall behold his face.
Psalm 11:3, 7

I wonder if you’ve heard Psalm 11 quoted recently--specifically that third verse. It’s often a despairing cry of Christians fearfully watching the biblically-based values of their society pass away. We hear and understand this cry in our present context. But what is this cry doing in this psalm?

Psalm 11 rebukes fearful despair that throws up its arms and retreats when threatened. Don’t we all know this tendency? I certainly recognize that alarmist voice the psalmist quotes in verses 1-3, telling us to “flee like a bird to your mountain.” The imagery vividly evokes the feeling of being surrounded, a target for the wicked. We picture enemies bending their bows, fitting their arrows, aiming “to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart.”

But the psalmist is actually rejecting the voice that urges God’s people to respond in fear and despair. “How can you say these words to my soul?” demands David--who knew quite literally the experience of being attacked. We know it, too, even though the attacks take various forms. With every new law or ruling that strikes at the heart of God’s established order, we understand this imagery better and better. We might despair for our society, our churches, our ministries, our families, our selves . . . and where will we finally flee?

In the psalm’s second section, David answers the question posed in the first. What can the righteous do if the foundations are destroyed? Actually, the opening line already gave away the answer; as often happens in the Psalms, verse 1 contains a nutshell of the poem’s whole point: “In the Lord I take refuge.” This point unfolds in the second section, where we turn our gaze from the surrounding enemies to the Lord God above.

Looking up (vv. 4-7), we see so much so quickly. We see that the Lord is the Holy One, not us! We see him in his holy temple and on his throne in heaven, seeing and testing all, including us. We see that he will deal with the wicked, finally and fully and awfully. And we see that he loves righteousness and invites the righteous into his very presence, to behold his face. What more secure refuge could exist!

How can anyone find that refuge, secure in him? Not by fearing or fleeing from evil around us. The Scriptures unfold the full answer: flee to the perfectly righteous Son of God, who himself suffered the wrath this psalm describes as due the wicked (which includes all of us). Because Jesus suffered that wrath in our place, we can find refuge in the Lord, even while walking through the valley of the shadow of death. We need fear no evil.

Like the psalmist, we can rebuke our fears and speak aloud our confidence in our righteous and redeeming Lord God. When we do this together as God’s people, our words become a song of praise.

Suggestions for Prayer

Read Psalm 11 in its entirety. Praise God for his attributes revealed in verses 4-7.
Lay your fears--the things that make you want to flee--before the Lord. Ask him to be your refuge.
Reflect on Jesus, who suffered the worst onslaught--God’s wrath--on our behalf. Thank God for giving his Son, and ask God to help you and all his people bear witness to him faithfully and without fear.

Kathleen B. Nielson serves as the director of women’s initiatives for the Gospel Coalition. She is a popular conference speaker and the author of two volumes in the Knowing the Bible study series, co-editor of Word-Filled Women's Ministry: Loving and Serving the Church (with Gloria Furman), and a contributor to the ESV Women's Devotional Bible. Kathleen and her husband, Niel, have three grown sons, two beautiful daughters-in-law, and a growing number of grandchildren.

Daily Devotion

7/20/2016

Crossway Communications
Jen Wilkin
"Need"

And my God will supply every need of yours according to his riches in glory in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:19

We humans don’t like the fact that we are needy creatures. We love autonomy and view dependence as a sign of failure, a flaw of some kind, a lack of proper planning or ambition. But why do we take this view? It’s almost as though our reasoning can’t separate the presence of need from the presence of sin. But is sin the cause of human need?

A quick examination of Genesis 1-3 answers this question with a resounding no. In pre-fall Eden, Adam and Eve were created to need. Even before the fateful plucking of the forbidden fruit, they depended on God for the breath in their lungs, for the food in their bellies, for water, land, and light. They had needs--both physical and spiritual--before sin ever slithered into the picture. God created them needy, that in their need they might turn to the Source of all that is needful, acknowledge their need, and worship. Instead, they angled for autonomy.

Like them, we see human need as a flaw and self-sufficiency as a crowning achievement. We become plate-spinners and ball-jugglers. With our lives collapsing around us, we paint on a smile and fake our way through another Sunday at church, denying our need for authenticity. We take out another line of credit, denying our need for financial stability. We ignore symptoms of illness, denying our need for medical attention. We work late into the night, denying our need for rest. We starve ourselves to a size 2, denying our need for food. I’m fine. I’m better than fine. And I certainly don’t need help. We turn from the God-worship that should have resulted from seeing our need to the self-worship of believing we are self-sufficient.

God, in his infinite wisdom, created us to need him. And he also created us to need each other. Genesis 2 reminds us that it was not good for the man to be alone. Rather, it was good for him to be in relationship. The New Testament expands this idea to include the fellowship of believers, comparing us to one body with parts that depend on each other, making self-sufficiency both illogical and unthinkable: “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you’” (1 Corinthians 12:21). We were created to need both God and others. We were not created to be self-sufficient. Nor were we re-created in Christ to be so. Sanctification is the process of learning dependence, not autonomy.

So set aside the plate-spinning, ball-juggling idolatry of self-sufficiency. Be quick to confess your tendency to trust your own resources rather than acknowledge God as your provider. Not only that, be quick to ask for help from others and receive it graciously when it is given. The kingdom of heaven belongs to the poor in spirit. Its King meets us and saves us, not in our self-sufficiency but in our lack.

Blessed are those who need. And most blessed is he who supplies all our needs according to his riches in glory.

Suggestions for Prayer

Ask God to show you where your heart has lied to you. What sin have you justified, minimized, or concealed?
Ask God to show you a situation in which you need to ask for help from others.
Thank God that he has met your greatest need once and for all through the atoning work of Jesus Christ.

Jen Wilkin is a speaker, writer, and teacher of women’s Bible studies. During her fifteen years of teaching, she has organized and led studies for women in home, church, and parachurch contexts. Jen and her family are members of the Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas. She is the author of Women of the Word: How to Study the Bible with Both Our Hearts and Our Minds and None Like Him: 10 Ways God Is Different from Us (and Why That's a Good Thing).

Daily Devotion

7/19/2016

Crossway Communications
Jen Wilkin
"Knowledge"

O Lord, you have searched me and known me!
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
you discern my thoughts from afar.
You search out my path and my lying down
and are acquainted with all my ways.
Psalm 139:1-3

The first time I took a personality test was in college. It was the Meyers-Briggs, a well-researched measuring tool that groups respondents into sixteen personality types based on their answers to ninety-four questions. The results of my test were clear, but how I felt about them was less clear. While I loved gaining insight into my personality, I was a little deflated to learn how predictable I was. How could a set of unremarkable questions so easily categorize me? My perception of my own uniqueness--my “specialness”--felt a little dented.

Personality tests operate on the premise that behaviors and preferences can be generalized. They find order in what we perceive to be random combinations of preferences and judgments. And they challenge our treasured belief that we are complex creatures. We humans like to think that we are incomprehensible, complex, and mysterious. But we’re not.

We are knowable. Completely.

But not by a personality test or by another person. Other people can gain insight into our strengths and weaknesses, our virtues and our vices by means of observation, but they can’t know us fully. One reason this is true is because we are masters at concealment, even from those we love and trust. We excel at showing our finer qualities while carefully tucking away our shortcomings. And because other people have a limited interest in plumbing the depths of our character, we can usually get away with it. “Man looks on the outward appearance,” and is content to do so, being so typically intent on his own hidden issues that he has little time to concern himself with the hidden issues of his neighbor.

Far more concerning is that we do not and cannot fully know ourselves. The psalmist asks, “Who can discern his [own] errors?” (Psalm 19:12) The prophet Jeremiah warns that our hearts are characterized above all else by an internal, pervasive treachery that thwarts self-knowledge: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jeremiah 17:9).

My deceitful heart is happy to perpetuate the lie that my sin is not sin, or that my sin is not my fault, or that my sin is not known all the days of my life. Thank God, he allows no such thing. He graciously holds up the mirror of his Word, and my heart is laid bare. I am reminded that I am fully knowable and fully known.

He knows me fully--every thought, every intention, every perception, every judgment, and every response to the world around me--no personality test required. Even the temptations I face are so known to him that he calls them “common to man.” Apprehending with complete accuracy the best and the worst of me, he is neither impressed nor horrified. He accepts me as I am because of Christ. Nothing is hidden before the one who formed my inmost being, and, because I am fully known, I am fully free to love him in return.

Out of this love, I learn to trade the myth of human incomprehensibility for the mercy of human knowability. I learn to trust the expertise of God.

Suggestions for Prayer

Ask God to show you where your heart has lied to you. What sin have you justified, minimized, or concealed?
What person in your life is difficult to understand? Ask God to grant you patience and the ability to trust that he knows both you and that person fully.
Thank God that he knows you completely and, because of Christ, loves you still.

Jen Wilkin is a speaker, writer, and teacher of women’s Bible studies. During her fifteen years of teaching, she has organized and led studies for women in home, church, and parachurch contexts. Jen and her family are members of the Village Church in Flower Mound, Texas. She is the author of Women of the Word: How to Study the Bible with Both Our Hearts and Our Minds and None Like Him: 10 Ways God Is Different from Us (and Why That's a Good Thing).

Daily Devotion

7/18/2016

Crossway Communications
Heather Nelson
"Honor"

And while [Jesus] was at Bethany in the house of Simon the leper, as he was reclining at table, a woman came with an alabaster flask of ointment of pure nard, very costly, and she broke the flask and poured it over his head. There were some who said to themselves indignantly, "Why was the ointment wasted like that? For this ointment could have been sold for more than three hundred denarii and given to the poor." And they scolded her. But Jesus said, "Leave her alone. Why do you trouble her? She has done a beautiful thing to me." Mark 14:3-6

Shame cloaks this woman, but she moves through the narrative as a picture of someone acting contrary to the shame that should be her due. Luke’s parallel account of this scene alludes to her as a “woman of the city, who was a sinner” (Luke 7:37). What other woman could be so bold as to intrude on a gathering of men and anoint Jesus with expensive perfume? She must be aware of how this might seem; yet, she is silently extravagant. She speaks no words but is characterized by her actions and the responses others present.

When looking at what she did, we see a woman of extreme generosity. She anoints Jesus with ointment worth a year’s wages. It’s a sacrifice that might almost seem wasteful--something those who witness it point out with their question. Their perspective seems pious and right: why not give this money to the poor, to a better cause? They go so far as to scold her, implying public shaming. We can imagine her response at this point may be a telltale flush of her cheeks, a turning away and trying to appear small, a running toward the door.

But we are stopped in our tracks--and so is she--by Jesus's unexpected defense. She says nothing while Jesus rebukes those who have scolded her. He tells them to leave her alone as he calls her action beautiful. He reverses the shame they tried to hurl at her, calling her heartfelt, extravagant worship honorable.

This story is a picture of Jesus's honor given to those most weighed down with shame. The fact that he allows her--a shame-filled woman--to anoint him meant that he would willingly take on the shame of her story. She is beginning to be freed of the shame that others thought was her due, and so she is free to worship Jesus from the heart with extravagance. She acts with confidence, and that confidence is shown to be well-placed when Jesus rises to her defense, calls her action beautiful, and tells her accusers to leave her alone.

What do your accusers sound like? Who are they and what are their messages? What would it look like for you to defy them, trusting that Jesus's words of defense and honor are more potent than the shame they want to throw your way?

Perhaps your journey to free worship--bringing all you are and all you have to Jesus--starts with identifying how your accusers' shame has entrapped you. Turn your eyes away from them and toward Jesus, the one who willingly took all of your guilt and shame at the cross and gave you his righteous life instead. You are cloaked with honor, so worship extravagantly, doing beautiful things for the love of Jesus alone.

Suggestions for Prayer

What in your own story feels shameful? Speak it aloud to God in prayer.
Ask God to make his voice of commendation louder than your accusers' voices of condemnation.
Ask God to show you what free, extravagant worship of Jesus could mean for you today, this week, and this year. Ask him for insight related to where shame held you back and how can you live free of its power.

Heather Nelson is a writer, counselor, and speaker. Heather writes regularly at HeatherDavisNelson.com and has been a featured writer at the Gospel Coalition, as well as a contributing author to the Journal of Biblical Counseling. She and her husband are parents to twin daughters and live in southeastern Virginia. She is the author of Unashamed: Healing Our Brokenness and Finding Freedom from Shame.