Martha, Martha...

Luke 10:38-42

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.t Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

As I was reading this morning during my quiet time, something struck me about this passage of scripture. Martha was distracted (we all know that) but later when she complains to Jesus about Mary's lack of help, Jesus diagnoses her. He says "you are worried and upset about many things."

Isn't that the case for many of us? There are so many things in our lives that cause us worry or upset us... the bills we can't seem to catch up on, the sickness that just won't go away, the marriage that we can't seem to save, our child who just keeps rebelling... in essence, life. These things consume our minds. We struggle with our daily responsibilities because we just can't focus... we are so distracted. Distracted... that is what Martha was. She was distracted because she was worried and upset about many things.

One of the strategies of the enemy is to keep us from being focused on God's will for our lives. If he can keep us worried about a lot of other things or upset about things that we can't control, then we'll not stay focused on pursuing our personal purpose.

I don't know what the distractions in your life are but I know that I have my own and unless I decide, like Mary, to refuse to allow those things to control my thought life, I will miss it as well. So let's make a decision together to follow Mary's example and keep focused on Jesus. Forget about the other stuff, the upsetting things. Let's decide together to seek first His kingdom and His righteousness. Let's choose to cast our cares on Him knowing that He cares for us. Let's not allow the enemy to keep us from completing our assignment another day.

Let's start now...