Devotion
“Then took Mary a pound of ointment of spikenard, very costly, and anointed the feet of Jesus” (John 12:3).
Mary’s love and devotion to her Lord led her to give freely of her precious ointment. Perhaps this may seem a small thing, but did you realize that the value of the spikenard was approximately one year’s wages? “For it might have been sold for more than three hundred pence” (Mark 14:5). A day’s wages in Bible times was about a penny a day, and there are, I suppose, about 300 working days in a year. Would you or I be willing to make any sacrifice that would come close to matching this?
Today the Lord Jesus wants another kind of sacrifice — the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.
“By Him therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name” (Hebrews 13:15).
“I will offer to Thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord” (Psalm 116:17).
Will you offer this sacrifice to the one who sacrificed Himself for you?
