Wasted

The word “wasted” has become associated with drug use, appropriately enough, since it is a word evocative of what could have been.  When something, or someone, is wasted there is a loss of something that cannot be regained.

There is a story in the Bible of a woman who knew what it was like to have a wasted life.  She is simply referred to as “a woman in the city who was a sinner” (Luke 7:37).  She obviously had heard of this man called Jesus and something had awakened in her spirit and let her know that the Messiah had come.

Luke 7:36-50 (NKJ)

Then one of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with him. And He went to the Pharisee’s house, and sat down to eat.  And behold, a woman in the city who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at the table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of fragrant oil,  and stood at His feet behind Him weeping; and she began to wash His feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hair of her head; and she kissed His feet and anointed them with the fragrant oil.

Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.”

 And Jesus answered and said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”
So he said, “Teacher, say it.”
 “There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.  And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both. Tell Me, therefore, which of them will love him more?”
 Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.”
And He said to him, “You have rightly judged.”

 Then He turned to the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has washed My feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. You gave Me no kiss, but this woman has not ceased to kiss My feet since the time I came in.  You did not anoint My head with oil, but this woman has anointed My feet with fragrant oil.  Therefore I say to you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven, for she loved much. But to whom little is forgiven, the same loves little.”

 Then He said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”
 And those who sat at the table with Him began to say to themselves, “Who is this who even forgives sins?”
Then He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you. Go in peace.”

There are two ways of being wasted – and there is, in the human spirit, a desire to be wasted.  One is to be wasted in the things of this world with no way of ever recovering that which is lost.

The other way is to be wasted in the things of God’s Kingdom.  We can pour out our lives in pursuit of the things of God – His presence, His power, His provision, His purpose, His people, His passion.

After all, He poured out His live for us.  Life “wasted” in the Kingdom of God will bring reward, both in this life and that which is to come.

Rhonda Roughton
Rhonda is founder of INK Ministries. INK Ministries' mission is to build up the body of Christ through writing, preaching and teaching with an emphasis on the New Covenant and who we are in Christ. "Write down the vision and make it plain on tablets so that whoever reads it may run with it." Habakkuk 2:2-3. This is a "hands-on" ministry as well as a writing ministry - moving in the gifts and power of the Holy Spiit to bring hope, healing and deliverance to all those who hunger for more of Him.