Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me."
And Jesus answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:38-42)
Both Mary and Martha loved Jesus, and Jesus had a special love for them and their brother Lazarus, whom he later raised from the dead. It was Martha who greeted Jesus at the door, and welcomed Him into the house. But here comes a problem. Martha then gets DISTRACTED with much serving. Mary, on the other hand, was taking the opportunity to sit at the feet of Jesus and learn.
If we have the opportunity to have times of closeness to God in prayer, times of receiving revelation from the Lord, I don't believe the Lord is happy if we'd prefer to be out there doing something active for Him at that time. There is a time for practical service, and a time for sitting at the feet of Jesus receiving revelation. We need to discern accurately the time for every activity.
If the Spirit of God is drawing us to spend time with the Lord, we should enjoy it without guilt. Feverish activity can even be counter-productive – it usually does run counter to the Lord's purposes. If Jesus wanted Mary in the kitchen, I'm sure he could have let her know that. But Jesus is far more interested in working in us through His Word than he is in us rushing off to do something for Him. Of course, there is a time for anointed action as well, and its not pleasing to the Lord that we try to sit around and learn when He is calling us to stand up and act. The bottom line is we need to be sensitive to the moving of the Spirit of God. Don't run off and try to do something for God, especially something you don't particularly enjoy, if the Spirit of God is giving you the opportunity to sit at the feet of Jesus, learn and receive revelation. But on the other hand, we should not be passive when God calls us to action, thinking that hearing the Word is enough.
This is a lesson for people who truly love the Lord. The Lord wants to spend quality time with us. But if we run off to do things, even seemingly needful things, and neglect special times of listening to the Lord, then problems might develop in our heart like they did for Martha at this time. We get some clues to this from a careful look at the passage.
First, Martha was distracted. Distraction is a thing of hell. God wants us to be focused on the Lord.
Secondly, Martha seems to be irritated with Mary, her sister. Love is not irritable.
Thirdly, it seems that Martha wants affirmation from Jesus for her works of service, which would be implied if Jesus went along with her request to tell Mary to join her in the kitchen. It seems like Martha is in a performance trap, wanting to gain approval by doing works for the Lord that are not on his heart.
Fourthly, Martha doesn't seem to appreciate the value of getting revelation from Jesus. Jesus told her that Mary had chosen "that good part". We need to value revelation from Jesus over striving to perform. If Martha had had a correct appreciation of the value of sitting at the feet of Jesus, she would have been doing it.
Fifthly, Martha is trying to tell the Lord what to do. This is usually not a good move. Martha seems to think she knows better than Jesus what is appropriate for the situation. She may even be a bit angry with the Lord. What good is all our acts of service, if we do them in a spirit of irritation with others and anger against the Lord?
So the lesson for us here is to make sure that we are valuing worship, fellowship and revelation with the Lord ABOVE our own estimates of what WE think really needs to be done. Personally I believe there are times to leave the house a bit messy and spend time with the Lord. Not all the time, by any means, but there are more important things than an outer state of order. God is more interested in us letting Him work in our hearts. Then we will show forth the fruit of the Spirit, and then our acts of service, when we do them, will also be acts of worship towards the Lord. Better for a woman of God to have a sweet spirit than to snap at everyone and complain about the housework. God makes everything beautiful in its time
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