Mary and Martha are two well known women in the Bible. Martha is known for being too busy and Mary is known as the sister who pleased Jesus. In today’s busy world, most of us fall into the Martha category, so I thought it would be good to find a way to be more like Mary.
Luke 10:38-42
Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”
And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”
Like Martha, I am sure many of us welcome Jesus into our house and into our life. I am sure too, that few of us simply sit at Jesus feet and hear His word, but we immediately get busy with 'doing'. Martha was distracted with her doing for Jesus, which left her complaining about her sister.
In a very busy world, we are often distracted by our doing. This 'doing' is causing us to turn into human doings and not human beings. To truly be a woman of God we need to put things back the way they were meant to be. So much of what we perceive as important really isn’t important at all. If you take an honest look at what you spend your time on you will realise that a great deal of it can probably be left out of your day or perhaps kept under control a bit better.
How much time do you spend on the computer, on the Internet and watching TV? If you don’t spend much time on those things look deeper, how much time to you spend cleaning, helping other people, making food, building a career, hanging out with friends, going shopping, etc. All good things you would think, but too much of any of them and too little time with Jesus just makes us a Martha.
Martha wasn’t doing anything bad, she wasn’t being lazy, she was working hard to prepare food for Jesus. Something that seems like a good thing, I am sure Jesus was hungry as He has probably walked far to see them. Yet, Martha was told she was distracted and Mary was commended. Don’t allow the devil to put a guilt trip on you and tell you that you are lazy! If you have your priorities in order and have made time in your day to sit at Jesus feet then you have chosen that good part.
Everything that we do should be an overflow of our time with Jesus. It is a beautiful life when it is motivated by our time with Jesus. Busyness is the biggest trap of modern living and we should all slow down, take some time out, sit at Jesus feet and hear what He wants to say to us. Washing dishes can wait, serving all the poor people can wait, updating your FaceBook status can wait and building that career can wait too. Can you picture Martha all stressed out and annoyed with Mary? Can you picture Mary, peaceful, calm and content, sitting with Jesus? Which woman would you rather be?
Matthew 6:33
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
Putting Jesus first doesn’t mean you will lose, you can only gain. As the verse says above, if you put kingdom things first then all the other things will be added to you anyway. It’s a win/win situation. You gain more by doing less. Do you need to make time to sit at Jesus feet?
The Being a Woman book and worksheets are available here.
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