Remembering to be a Mary

At the Home of Martha and Mary

Luke 10:38042

 ³⁸ As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. ³⁹ She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. ⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

   ⁴¹ “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, ⁴² but few things are needed—or indeed only one.^[f] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”

How many times I find myself to be like Martha in this story, and how I long to be more like Mary. I many times get so focused on making sure I am serving, causing myself to run around much like I imagine Martha was doing, trying to prepare everything and working hard to make everything perfect, ‘for the Lord.’ When all Jesus really wants me to do is take a break from it all and sit at His feet and just spend time with him. 

I believe I should still be serving but I need to remember what the most important part of my relationship with Christ is, and it’s NOT the serving, it’s the spending time at Jesus feet.  I skip this step so often because I find myself running around trying to serve Christ that I forget to do what is most important and that is just relax at his feet, and listen to what He has to teach, let Him serve me and my needs.  I get so caught up in my preparations of everything I am doing to serve Christ that I even get frustrated at times when I look around and see others not so frustrated with serving and sometimes get upset because I see they are not serving. But how terrible of me to be judging them for their lack of running around acting wacky like I do. Many times I seem to forget that I should be looking at them and wanting to do what they are doing instead of wondering why they are not helping. They are the people who are taking the time to stop and listen to Jesus and I need to remember to be more like that as Jesus would say, “they have chosen what is better.”

I know I see to really be on a soap box the last few days about serving but I have really been challenged lately by God to search and find the true reasons for serving. Many times even if God has called me to serve I forget my purpose in serving is for His glory not my own, and in order for Him to be completely glorified I need to make sure I am taking time to stop and sit at Jesus feet and listen to what he has to say. Praying I can start to be a better listener to Jesus and keep remembering to take time to spend time with Him.