I recently read a story that is now convicting me and how I go about my days and in my walk with Christ.
The story comes from Luke 10:38-41, it’s the story of Mary, Martha, and Jesus. Jesus and his disciples were invited into Martha’s house. While Jesus was teaching, Mary sat at the Lords feet listening to him; Martha however was distracted with preparing a great dinner for Jesus. Martha goes to Jesus frustrated that Mary isn’t helping her serve. She says “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.” Jesus’s reply is what has caught my attention and moved me into conviction and joy. Jesus replies “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”
I think I tend to get so distracted with trying to serve Jesus at times I forget to just sit and listen to his voice. My life is mostly full these days with responsibilities and expectations, and I’ve somewhat lost touch with truly sitting at my Savior’s feet.
Yes, Jesus did give us the commandment to go and spread the Good News, but before we can do that we have to sit and listen to him. If we don’t have that intimacy of just sitting with God and listening to him, we can get caught up in a merit/works based Christianity and that is a false Gospel.
I know for me I don’t want that, more than anything I want to just sit at Jesus’s feet, to walk with him, to know him more deeply everyday. So I encourage you to not neglect intimacy with the Lord. It’s a pretty valuable thing in the Kingdom of God. In our western mindsets we forget that often, and we tend to worry more about going and doing when the God we belong to wants to sit and chat. God’s jealous for us, for our time, jealous for our intimacy. And do we tend to give more of us to other things than just sitting in intimacy with Him? Sometimes we need to slow down and ask ourselves that; I know I had too.
Blessings and Maranatha
- Nathan
