Jesus entered a certain village and Martha received Him into her house–Luke 10:38. Martha had a sister named Mary who sat at Jesus’ (Yeshua’s) feet and heard His word. Martha, however, felt cumbered by constantly serving. When she felt exhausted and needed some help, she did not ask Mary to help her.
She complained to Yeshua saying in Luke 10:40, “… Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me.” Yeshua will correct Martha.
Notice Martha invites God into her house, but she does not listen to Him. She runs around doing busy work trying to look the part of a good hostess. Then she rudely interrupts Yeshua’s message to complain about her sister Mary listening attentively to every word from God. Martha chooses not to sit and listen to Yeshua. She works and stops her work to complain about Mary in front of Mary to God. Mary does not argue or respond to Martha’s rudeness and insult towards her. Satan could have triggered a big argument right in the presence of Yeshua in Martha’s home, but Mary stayed calm and at peace in the face of insult.
How many of us like Martha feel tired running around serving and wanting to demand of God to tell others around us to help us? We want to control the life of others and correct them. We look at our brothers or sisters focused on God’s word and wonder why they are not doing anything? They seem so relaxed. We may become jealous. We may begin to complain when under stress. We try to take away unknowingly their joy and peace in the presence of God. We become critical thinking their the problem not realizing the problem lies within us.
Martha had her focus on Mary rather than on Yeshua. We like Martha at times need to correct our focus. Yeshua will help us if we seek His help like Martha. Where is your focus? Whatever you focus on the most that is the direction your life will head.
To balance your life, you must live a life more like Mary. You must focus on Yeshua and His words to you. Mary sat at Yeshua’s (Jesus’) feet listening to His every word. Martha, however, ran around cooking and taking care of every need she could think of. So concerned about what she thought she had to do; she missed the point of focusing on Yeshua and His words to Her. Her focus set on worldly matters stressed her out while her sister sat in peace listening to the spiritual matters presented by God.
This reminds me of the following saying: some of us are so spiritually minded, we are no earthly good. Some of us, however, are so earthly minded like Martha we are no spiritually good.
How many of us can honestly say we are living life more like Mary and less like Martha? For me like most, the equilibrium of my life swings between these two sisters mostly like Martha most work days if I’m not careful. Other days I’m more like Mary listening to God’s every word to me and feeling a peace that surpasses all understanding.
Finally, when Martha goes to complain to Yeshua for Mary to stop listening to Him and help her, Yeshua says in Luke 10:42, “But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” Mary had her focus on what truly matters in this life: the words of life spoken by Yeshua.
To live a balanced life, we need to spend time listening to what God has to say to us via reading His word and listening to what His word says to us–God, also, speaks to us through His Spirit living within us.
What a wonderful reminder of how much God loves us and wants to be in relationship with us.
The “good part” is sitting at Jesus’ feet to understand the wisdom He offers and soak in His love.
All the “running around” in the world…for whatever reason…is no substitute.
When we spend focused time with Jesus then whatever “running around” we must do…or choose to do…
becomes more purposeful and, ultimately, yields a result that is more pleasing to God.
In this God may give us greater peace and satisfaction.
Thank you (author) again for sharing again this powerful illustration of how God wants us to relate to Him.
It is there in the Bible for a reason and it’s message is timeless.
DWK, I’ve discovered God wants to reestablish a relationship with us more than anything else. He is waiting on us to take the time to settle down to connect with Him. It’s a challenging task in this fast pace world of ours, but it’s very doable We must intentionally think about connecting with God each day at the start of our day.
You truly hit the nail on the head with this article! Sometimes we feel the more things we can check off on our to-do-list the less stress we will feel. But in most cases the more things we start checking off the longer the list becomes. Until we stop & reconnect with God the devil will continue to find things for us to do just to distract us from what really matters. It takes time to find that balance. I am definitely a work in progress. Thanks for sharing 🙂
Lillian you’re so right! Satan creates distractions to stress us out while keeping us busy. We become like a rat on a wheel running going nowhere fast. To slow myself down so that I am focused on the right priorities each day, I try to start my day by getting into God’s word and praying. Sometimes I am up between 3 am to 5 am. When I do, I find that my days head in a great direction. I feel peaceful. I may even go for a quick run and talk to God before I get ready for work. I try to listen to what God has to say to me before I head out into my day. It truly makes a difference.