Mark 14 (up to vs 43)

The perfume... reminds me of the story told early of the woman giving the coins in the offering. She gave all she had with no abandon. Mary did the same here with the perfume. She seemed to understand that the end was near for Jesus. What an encouraging gift to him. I pray that I am able to see the opportunities when the Lord gives them to me just like Mary did. She actually left a legacy that the Lord wanted people to hear about. Very precious.

The very next sentence, Judas goes to betray Jesus. Can you imagine the things Jesus must have been feeling? Then to tell all the disciples about the upcoming betrayal must have been so hard. Would we have responded as they did and saying "Not I!" Even the best of the best thought they would not deny Jesus. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

Verses 32-42 stood out to me differently today. I have been trying to focus more on prayer and the importance of it and how to pray. This section of scripture is interesting and again, kind of sad. Jesus asks the disciples who were with him to pray while he spent time along with the Father. Three times he comes back to the disciples and they are asleep instead of keeping watch and praying. Jesus actually says "Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak." Once again - Jesus is foretelling the future - pray so you won't be tempted. Had the disciples stayed awake and prayed - would things have gone differently? I think Jesus knew they would but also knew that they would fall asleep. He was desperate for his disciples, his friends to pray for him while he prepared for his death, but they weren't even able to do that. Kind of breaks your heart doesn't it?

My Bible sheds some insight on the subject. "In the loneliness that comes while awaiting death, Jesus longed for the presence of friends who would pray with him. In addition, the disciples needed to pray for their own benefit, considering their predicted denial, cowardice and abandonment of Jesus. Their boasts of allegiance (v. 31) appear pathetic in the light of their behavior as the night wore on. Their failure to pray would make them an easy mark when assaulted by fear and temptation."

How often have we left the Lord waiting on us... longing for us to talk to him and pray? It's a good wake up call to see how important prayer was to Jesus while he was on earth... it has to be equally important now.

Mark 11

The fig tree had leaves but no fruit. It wasn't even the season for leaves so naturally you might think if it did have leaves it would also have fruit. How else can we look at this? If we say a lot of christian words but don't have the actions behind it, we are like the fig tree. If we attend church on Sunday but don't really listen and apply the message to our lives, we look a little bit more like a fig tree. If we make promises or commitments that we don't keep or talk behind someones back, we just grew a whole lot of fig leaves and no fruit. It's no wonder the Lord found there was no fruit.

The fig tree actually represented Israel and it's "spiritual unfruitfulness". There is an explanation in my Bible that I love... it says "The one who prays correctly will leave room for God's will to overrule any request." (Matt 6:10) That is definitely praying with faith that our Heavenly Father loves us and wants His best for us! What big things are you having faith for?