Christian Foundations

December 26, 2007

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

--Luke 1:38-42

Before you can be effective for Christ, you must first make it a practice to be still and experience His presence in your life each day.

In the story of Mary and Martha, we see two very different responses to Jesus. While Martha is busy getting the food ready, making sure the house is clean, and so on, we find Mary sitting at Jesus’ feet… listening to His teaching.

This made Martha mad! There she was, frantically preparing a meal, running around, trying to make everything perfect in her house for Jesus, while her sister wasn’t helping her at all!

Martha was so mad that she even made a comment to Jesus about the lack of help from her sister. But Jesus came back to Martha with a fascinating response… a response that most of us need to hear today. Jesus said, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

The one thing necessary that Jesus talks about here is spending time with Him. While serving others is important and something each believer is called to do, we can’t make this our priority and forget to spend time with God every day!

So let me ask you… when it comes to your walk with God, are you a “Martha” or a “Mary”? It’s my prayer that you and I would be a “Mary”… a person who makes spending time with the Lord Jesus your number one priority!

Before you can be effective for Christ, you must first make it a practice to be still and experience His presence in your life each day.