Wasteful Worship

August Teaching Letter from Denise Renner

Dear friend,

I pray that your year has been so blessed so far! Our God is generous — He is the God with the open hand and not the clenched fist, and I know that He wants to pour out so much provision and blessing on your life. In fact, if you have any testimonies of His generosity to you in this year so far, I hope you will reach out and tell us! We love celebrating His goodness with you, so feel free to share with our team by calling 1.844.473.6637 or emailing denisesocial@renner.org.

Now, I know that many of us could go on forever talking about what He has given to us, but today, I actually want to talk to you about what we can give to Him. Of course, He is God, so He really doesn’t need anything from us, but He is deserving of our gratitude, surrender, and praise, and He is faithful to honor the sacrifices we make to choose those things. That’s why today, I want to take you to the Gospel of John and show you a powerful example of true worship.

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You’ve probably heard this story before.

It was six days before the Passover, six days before Jesus was going to pour out His blood on the Cross, and He was visiting His friends, Lazarus, Mary, and Martha, in Bethany. They probably spent the whole day preparing to host and feed Him and all His disciples, and during this time, Mary had something special stirring in her heart.

At the end of the meal, she came to Jesus at the table, and John 12:3 says, “Then Mary took a pound of very costly oil of spikenard, anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the oil.”

This is a wonderful picture of true worship.

I want you to understand that this was an expensive gift that Mary was giving. This spikenard was so expensive that it took a whole year’s wages to buy, and it had a very special purpose. Spikenard was something that a bride would bring into her marriage, so this gift was also very personally costly to her.

Friend, when we take what is most costly to us, and we let it go for Jesus’ sake, we are showing our overflowing love for Him. You see, God is a jealous God, and He wants us to love Him more than anything else: more than ourselves, our spouses, children, friends, reputations, money, or anything else that we could love. He even says in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.”

He wants to be that most important thing in your life, because He knows that it will be really difficult for you to worship Him if He’s not. True worship will cost you something. It may be your pride, time, or energy. It could be something monetary or something that’s emotionally significant to you, like we see in this passage, but if you’re going to give up those things, you’re going to need to love Him more than any of them.

What’s beautiful about Mary’s worship is that it wasn’t just expensive — it was downright wasteful! You see, Mary could have just given Jesus that spikenard. She could have said, “Jesus, I love You so much. You’re so powerful, and You raised Lazarus from the dead, so I’m giving You a gift of the most expensive thing I own.” She could have just put it in Jesus’ hands, and that still would have been a complete, costly release.

But she went a step further. She got down on her knees and poured it on His feet. She took that year’s worth of wages, took the top off, and just turned the bottle over! She was giving her most costly possession, not for Jesus to go sell it for money, but to totally waste it on Him.

John 12:3 even says that she took her hair down and wiped His feet with it, which is important because at that time and in that culture, ladies only ever showed their hair to their husbands. So Mary had already poured out the most expensive, precious thing to her, and now she was even giving up her reputation and the things people thought about her — all to worship the Lord!

You know, friend, you really can’t worship and worry at the same time. You’re either on one side with God in worship or you’re on the other side with worry, fear, and thoughts that say, “Are other people looking at me and judging me? Will I have enough money for tomorrow if I give this now?”

How are you supposed to worship God when your mind is so focused on all those other things? Friend, I’m telling you from experience, it’s hard to worship when you are burdened down, so we have to instead be like Mary. We have to put our full focus on Him, so much that we don’t even notice how much time or money we’re wasting or how much judgement we are receiving.

In fact, when you are fully worshipping Him, you don’t even have to worry about those things, because He is your protection. Look at what happened to Mary as she was pouring out her incredible, wasteful, costly worship to Jesus: “But one of His disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, who would betray Him, said, ‘Why was this fragrant oil not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?’” (John 12:4-5).

Mary was totally wasting herself on Jesus, and in the midst of that beautiful, undignified worship, someone came against her. Judas spoke up and said, “Why are you wasting that expensive perfume? You should have given it to the poor, Mary.”

Maybe you’ve faced opinions like this in your pursuit of God: “Why are you going to that church so much? Why are you donating your money all the time? Why are you spending so much time praying?” Other people are always going to have opinions, but what did Jesus do when Judas tried to rebuke Mary? He said, “Let her alone” (John 12:7).

When you worship God with everything that is within you, you can stand strong in the promise that Jesus will defend you. You don’t have to worry or hold back a single thing, because if something comes against you, He will stand up and say, “Let her alone!” He will honor your sacrifice and reward your commitment with His powerful presence. He will draw close to you with all His joy, wisdom, and peace.

I encourage you to decide today that you’re not going to hold anything back. Decide that you are going to completely waste yourself on the Lord. That is true worship, friend, and I can promise that when you do it, you will be fully protected and supplied for by the One who you are worshipping. 

Well, friend, I am so grateful to have had this opportunity to write to you, and I want to thank you for taking the time to read it. Before I finish, I want to invite you to join me for my weekly program, TIME With Denise Renner. If you were encouraged by this month’s letter, then I know that God will have something to say to you in some of my other weekly teachings as well, so I hope you’ll come watch live on Monday at 7 AM CT on Facebook and YouTube or catch the rerun on Facebook on Wednesday at 12 PM CT. You can also find my teachings any time on my YouTube channel or by visiting renner.org. I can’t wait to spend this time in the Word with you each week!

I also want to remind you that we have a wonderful prayer team who is here for you through whatever is going on in your life. Whether you are facing financial or relational difficulties, seeking healing, or even just needing prayer for a right heart and attitude before God, our prayer team would be so honored to come alongside you. You can call us at 1.844.473.6637 or email denisesocial@renner.org.

Thank you so much for spending this time with me today, friend, and I look forward to writing to you again next month.

We are moving forward together,

Denise Renner