"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.
And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word.
But Martha was cumbered 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.
And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:
But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her."
Luke 10:38-42
This is an interesting lesson about priorities. God, of course, doesn't want us to leave our families to starve while we quit our jobs and read the scriptures all day. We need to take care of the things that matter. God does, however, want us to let go of the things that don't matter and focus on the things that do. It's that dividing line that sometimes gives us problems. In this case, Martha felt obligated to be the hostess and to serve everyone. Perhaps there was another way, or it could have been put off until later.
We are all careful and troubled about many things... and probably very few of them actually are worth all the time we spend worrying about them. Can you imagine, for instance, if we as a society spent as much time thinking about the gospel as we do about weight-loss? What if we spent as much time talking about Christ as we spend talking about other people? What if we worried as much about our spiritual preparation as we do about our money? God should always be our top priority, and too often our minds and actions are focused on things that really don't matter very much at all.
Today, let's try to make some better choices about what we spend our time doing and worrying about. Let's take care of ourselves and our lives adequately, but like Mary, let's choose to stop worrying and sit and listen to Christ as often as we can.
And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word.
But Martha was cumbered 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.
And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:
But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her."
Luke 10:38-42
This is an interesting lesson about priorities. God, of course, doesn't want us to leave our families to starve while we quit our jobs and read the scriptures all day. We need to take care of the things that matter. God does, however, want us to let go of the things that don't matter and focus on the things that do. It's that dividing line that sometimes gives us problems. In this case, Martha felt obligated to be the hostess and to serve everyone. Perhaps there was another way, or it could have been put off until later.
We are all careful and troubled about many things... and probably very few of them actually are worth all the time we spend worrying about them. Can you imagine, for instance, if we as a society spent as much time thinking about the gospel as we do about weight-loss? What if we spent as much time talking about Christ as we spend talking about other people? What if we worried as much about our spiritual preparation as we do about our money? God should always be our top priority, and too often our minds and actions are focused on things that really don't matter very much at all.
Today, let's try to make some better choices about what we spend our time doing and worrying about. Let's take care of ourselves and our lives adequately, but like Mary, let's choose to stop worrying and sit and listen to Christ as often as we can.
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