OH TO REST AS MARY

Luke 10:38 - Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house.
vs. 39 - And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' [fn] feet and heard His word.
vs. 40 - 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."
vs. 41 - And Jesus answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things.
vs. 42 - "But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her."

God has been bringing this passage back to me over and over again the past few months. I am so like Martha in this world, always about serving and doing and worrying and being troubled. I find it quite convicting that the scripture states she was "distracted with much serving." Because I myself am consistenly distracted with this life we live hear on this earth. There are so many distractions to keep us from hearing His Word! Oh brothers and sisters! We so need to be less distracted and more about hearing His Word! How much are we missing of Him by allowing these distractions to keep us from sitting at His feet and hearing what He has to say.

Just imagine that you were there in that house that day when Jesus was there visiting. Would you really want to be about serving or sitting at His feet and hearing what He is saying? The thing is He is here visiting with us every day, but we are all too distracted to hear Him. Who really comes to sit at Jesus' feet and listen to Him?

Jesus says in vs. 42, "but one thing is needed and Mary has chosen that good part". What a huge revelation is in these 12 simple words.

Only one thing is needed? You mean, you don't need me out here in all this caous running around? You only want me to sit here? What is sitting really? Isn't that resting? You mean, you only want me resting? This puzzled me and was so hard for me to grasp in my being because the church has always been about doing this and doing that and serve here and serve there and "why aren't you doing something!?" Does this mean we can be lazy and lay around all day and everything will be ok? Of course not! That is not what this is saying at all. You see when we are resting in Him and listening to Him, HE IS DOING! HE IS SERVING! He is doing this through those who are listening to Him and resting in Him. HE IS HEALING! HE IS MEETING NEEDS! HE IS MAKING WRONGS RIGHT! He is doing all this in the midst of daily activities and schedules. HE IS LEADING HIS SHEEP! Instead of the sheep going off doing their own thing and then getting ravished by the wolves.

You see, when you are resting and hearing Him, He takes you to those who need healing, who need clothing, who are hungry and thirsty. He takes you to meet the needs of others and He causes you to make wrongs right. Because, how can you obey what He is saying to you if you aren't listening? How much more is He wanting to say to us if we were willing to continually rest in Him and listen? I can only imagine how quickly His Kingdom would come if we all practiced what Mary did.

And finally, this is why Jesus says that she had "chosen the good part." We can do alot of the things the scriptures tell us we should be doing in our own strength and our own will and our own minds, but this isn't the good part because it isn't complete. The good part is doing it all in HIS STRENGTH, HIS WILL AND IN HIS MIND! HE IS GOD, not us. HE KNOWS ALL, we don't. We all need to learn to take ourselves out of the equation and allow God to COMPLETE HIS WORK! Allow HIS KINGDOM TO COME!