“Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where He prayed.” Mark 1:35

Time With the Lord Is Never Wasted

I have some writing deadlines approaching, and the Lord woke me early this morning to work on them, or so I thought.

First, I wanted to read some of the Word. In Numbers, I was struck by something the Lord told Moses. I found myself writing a devotional, but whirling in the topic, being blessed by it, but not quite able to put it into words. I started to deride myself for over two hours of wasted time, until I heard the gentle, loving voice of my Father, “No time with Me is ever wasted.”

Oh, so true. Even though I didn’t get done what I thought I needed to, I spent time with my Daddy. He took me all over the Bible—all through His Love Letter, showing me that He cares for people, whether the aliens living with the Israelites in the wilderness (Leviticus 19:34 ESV), or the Good Samaritan, where a person’s heart, not his title, is what matters (Luke 10:25-37).

He finally revealed to me what this morning was really about: “And being in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, as He sat at the table, a woman came having an alabaster flask of very costly oil of spikenard. Then she broke the flask and poured it on His head. But there were some who were indignant among themselves, and said, ‘Why was this fragrant oil wasted?’” (Mark 14:3-4). I have a little card a dear friend of mine gave me. On it is the word Spikenard, and the Scripture, “Thanks be to God who always lead us in triumph in Christ and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. For we are to God the fragrance of Christ” (2 Corinthians 2:14-15 NIV).

The more time we spend in the solitary places with God, and the more time we sit at the foot of the Cross with Jesus, the more we become the fragrant oil. We then treat the stranger (alien) among us right, we become the Good Samaritan who has compassion on those who are wounded around us (Luke 10:30, 33). When we spend time with Him, He fills us up and we become the walking, breathing theme verse of our Church: “The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD” (Luke 4:18-19).

Dear Lord, thank You for the honor of spending time with You, for reminding us that time with You is never wasted, and for allowing us to be the fragrance of Your Son, Jesus. Amen.