"Martha, Martha, " the Lord answered, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." Luke 10:41-42
The story and scripture surrounding the story of Martha and Mary is among my favorites. The other morning I read a devotional online that reminded me again of what God has been teaching me lately. He really started when we moved to Lexington 3 years ago, but I don't always listen too well! I get distracted so easily, get caught up in being productive and task/accomplishment-oriented and can be stubborn or set in my way of thinking.
The bottom line truth He has been trying to knock into my head all these years is something I've known but not taken as seriously as I should have - t the most important thing in my life & my most critical purpose, is growing my personal relationship with Jesus Christ. When we have that right, everything else truly does fall into place, including all the other stuff we tend to focus on and which sometimes interferes with our personal relationship with our Lord.
Even focusing on things as important as putting others first, loving others unconditionally, serving God using the gifts He gave us, telling others about Him, and so on can distract us from the most important thing - our focus on Him and Him alone. It's easy to get hung up on the "how can I best be used by God" and "I need to do this to give God the glory" type of thinking and doing and lose sight of the true reason we're here. God doesn't need us to accomplish anything. He can handle it all without us - bringing that person to know him, feeding those hungry people, teaching that group, etc, etc.
What He does want from us is our love, attention and devotion. He wants to lead us to be the very best we can be. In keeping our focus on Him and all He has to teach us, through scripture, prayer and fellowship with other believers, we have the opportunity to glorify Him through all we do. Sharing Him and serving Him through others is a natural outpouring of our relationship with Him. When our love for Him is our focus, we share and serve out of love, not out of duty. What a difference that makes!
It's one of those "don't put the cart before the horse" things or "which came first, the chicken or the egg". Sometimes we get our focus out of order.
My prayer for today: Father God, thank you for always sending me reminders when I need them and being patient with me actually listening to what you're trying to tell me. Thank you for not giving up! I do love you beyond measure, but you know even better than I do how my focus gets out of place way too often. Please help me to keep it squarely on You and my ears and heart tuned to what you have planned for me. Please help me be more like Mary, who took the time to focus and listen to your teaching and truly soak it in instead of getting aggravated in the kitchen with getting everything "just right" in serving you. You know I love to serve you but if it comes down to the choice Martha & Mary had, please guide me to follow in Mary's footsteps. In your son's precious name I pray . . .
Where is your focus today? What can you do to get it where it needs to be?
No comments:
Post a Comment