This video took me to a story in Luke 10 about a woman named Martha and her sister Mary. 4 Verse that completely tore me apart and convicted me deeply of my walk with Christ.
Like Kristina mentions, we put these unreal expectations on ourselves to be the best at everything. Even though we want to succeed at these things, the harsh reality is that something is going to crash and burn. It’s inevitable.
What are some things that you are trying to balance right now?
I asked people on my social media sites to tell me what the top 3 things they were trying to balance were. Most of them ended up saying the same things. School, work, family, keeping the house clean, sports. All these things can take precedence in our lives and become a god if we aren’t careful. Only one time was the word faith used in this survey. This doesn’t mean that these people don’t have a relationship with Christ or that they don’t have daily devotions. But if you are anything like me, you can be honest with yourself and say that daily time with God sometimes takes a backseat to all the other demands on our life.
I know, as a mom, that quietness and alone time is something that is rare. Like the golden ticket from a Willy Wonka Bar. Some days, maybe even most days, a Devotion or time reading the bible can seem like just another task that I have to do on my checklist.
Let’s take a look at an example in the bible of 2 women who chose different paths.
Like 10:38-42 – This is the story of Mary and Martha.
38) Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
Something we need to understand about Martha. Martha’s love language was service. She would constantly be having people over. Sometimes over 70 people. In Hebrew culture, it was the women who were in the kitchen and preparing a meal. Jesus and the disciples were going through this town and stopped at Martha’s house. There wasn’t a phone call notice saying, “Hey we’re traveling through here and we would like to know if we could stop by and chat.” No OMW text. Nothing.
39) And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’s feet, and heard his word.
40) But Martha was cumbered (hindered or distracted) about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she help me.
How often are we hindered, distracted, or ‘busy’ with something we think is more important than our time with Jesus? Then we sit and complain to God about the fact that certain people aren’t helping us do what we are doing. How many of us can say that we have been in Martha’s shoes? How many of us can say that we get distracted by something that’s going on and forget our time with God. How often is our “time with God” our falling asleep prayers?
41) And Jesus answered and said unto her, ‘Martha, Martha, thou art careful and trouble about many things:
An article that I pulled up from table talk from 1990 talked about the importance of a name being mentioned twice in the bible. When a name was mentioned twice in the bible it showed that there was an intimacy between those people. Abraham, Moses, Absalom, Samuel. Just to name a few. When Jesus is talking to Martha here, he is indicating that they had a personal relationship with each other.
42) But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
The life that we long for, the life that we need isn’t found in doing one more thing for Jesus. It’s found at his feet. Real contentment isn’t found in our service; it’s found at Christ’s feet. We can’t do a certain amount of things to be pleasing in his sight. Unlike Martha, Mary made time for Jesus. Jesus has all the time in the world and he’s just waiting for us to come to him.
Jeremiah 33:3
Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.
God didn’t choose us to abuse us. He didn’t choose us to become his working horse. He came down to us because he WANTED to be with us. We should show him the same. Not call on him when we need him. Or call on him when we want something. But call on him because we WANT that relationship with him.
Maybe you have felt the call from God to become deeper in your relationship with him. I can tell you that everything I’ve ever wanted and everything I’ve ever needed has been found when I’m at his feet.
If you want to dive deeper into the story of Mary and Martha there is a book by Joanna Weaver called Having a Mary Heart in a Martha world. A lot of my points came from Joanna’s study.
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