Our Alabaster Jar

Today’s blog post is contributed by David Trotta:

While he was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head. (Mark 14:3)

In the above verse, the alabaster jar had to be broken for the perfume’s fragrance to be released.

In much of the culture in the church today, brokenness or being broken is not a popular or often preached topic.

Yet, in order to release the fragrance (presence) of God in our lives, we need to be broken.

Broken from what you ask?  Broken from the self’s – self-will, self-gratification, self-centeredness.

With “self” dominating our lives, the fragrance of God cannot be released in its fullness.

If you sense God challenging you to rearrange some priorities in our life, or you sense Him tugging you in a different direction than the one you are currently headed in, don’t resist.  Surrender your will to Him.  There is not a gentler master.

Brokenness is often the pathway to a greater level of intimacy with our heavenly Father.

The very costly presence of God resides in every believer, but our alabaster jar must be broken for the fragrance of God to be released. 

But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. (2 Corinthians 2:14)