Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Time Well Spent

In Other Words quote for July 20th~~~~Jesus simply didn’t want Martha to be so caught up in kitchen service FOR him that she missed out on the joy of Living-Room intimacy WITH Him. ~Joanna Weaver~

Martha started out on the right track that day when she welcomed Jesus into her home. Where she went wrong was when she became distracted with her desire to serve the Lord. To her it must have been an exciting thing to have Jesus there; it gave her the opportunity to serve someone who was spending all of His time serving others. Rushing off to the kitchen to do all she could do she forgot the most important thing, time with Jesus. Not quantity time in the kitchen serving but quality time at His feet listening to what He had to say.

Mary went straight for Jesus’ feet with a one-on-one session with Him. We can rest assure that she didn’t do it to get out of helping in the kitchen. To her it didn’t matter if Martha was off pounding the kettles in the next room upset with the fact that she wasn’t helping her. She was where she wanted to be, listening to Jesus in a conversation that we may never know what was discussed but certainly one of great importance.

What Martha was doing wasn’t necessarily wrong, as workers are needed in the kitchen, in the nursery, the mission field, to be encouragers, money counters or whatever else. It was the fact that she became preoccupied by it and allowed it to take precedence over the one thing that Christ said was the most important, time listening to Him.

Martha’s curiosity in itself should have been enough to get her to wonder what they were talking about in there but she was way too distracted at that point. What mattered to her was the work she was doing FOR the Lord that she totally missed the chance of having a cherished time WITH Him absorbing all He had to say and teach. Frequent looks away from what she was doing, catching a word or two here and there what Jesus was saying to Mary wasn’t enough.

Some people think that going to church on Sunday is establishing closeness with God. It’s a start, however, we can sit there each day and warm the pew that seems to have our name on it but not draw any closer to Christ. It’s up to us to make sure that we are doing all we can to capture what should be going on in the sanctuary of our heart, the very area where the relationship with our Lord and Savior begins as we welcome Him.

I have to admit that I’ve found myself many times in the position of Martha and her choices and Christ spoke to me as He did to her that day, “Karen, Karen, Karen, you are worried and troubled about many things but one thing is needed.” Ooppss, busted again as I pleaded guilty of missing out on the living room intimacy I needed WITH the Lord in order to draw close to the One who would help me through those times in my life. We have two to choose from yet there is no choice, quantity time in the kitchen or quality time with Christ.

“Dear Heavenly Father forgive us Lord for those times we make choices that keep us away from where we need to be, at Your feet listening to the words You have to say to us. Help us Lord to learn how to recognize the distractions that Satan tends to put in our way to keep us from spending quality time with You as we exercise the authority You have given us over Satan to stop this from happening. Although working FOR you is an awesome thing, spending time WITH You is even better as time well spent. Thank you Lord for this opportunity. We love you and may we show it by the choices we make in our lives.”


Luke 10:42 “But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” (NKJV)


The host for this week's quote is Loni over at Finding Joy in the Morning, go there to see what others have written and shared on this week's quote. Enjoy your journey, enjoy Christ.

7 comments:

Kate said...

I love how you "see" into the thoughts of Mary and Martha and make this story come to life.

Martha’s curiosity in itself should have been enough to get her to wonder what they were talking about in there but she was way too distracted at that point I never thought about this point that you make here in quite this way. It makes you wonder. It was Jesus! How could she not be curious about the living room conversation? And it drives the point home for us too. How can we not be drawn into greater intimacy with him ourselves?

Aunt Angie said...

Karen, I enjoyed your post very much! It really ministered to some issues in my own life right now.
Bless you as you blog on for Jesus!
Angie

Denise said...

Such a wonderful post, bless you.

Bonnie W said...

Hi Karen,

I enjoyed your post and am glad to see you here at In Other Words. Keep writing!
Bonnie W

JHS said...

Karen, wonderful post and, as the small scribbler said, you made the two women come alive!

(I must say, though, that although the blue color is very beautiful, it is nearly impossible to read if, like me, you have any visual difficulty or impairment.)

Lisa said...

I really enjoyed your post. I like how you brought out the points 'FOR' & 'WITH'. So true! :o)

Cheryl said...

Wonderful encouragement for us to have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ!