Only One Thing
Have you ever really looked at your priorities?
Verse of the Day
“But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.””
Today’s Devotional
As I was writing about distractions yesterday, God prompted me to read today’s verses. He sent this reminder through a search engine on openbible.info as I entered “distractions” into the search field to see what the Bible says about this topic. And these verses came up.
If you read this whole section of Scripture, we see that Martha invited Jesus and His disciples into her home. Apparently while He was in her home, He was teaching, and Martha’s sister Mary sat at the feet of Jesus to listen to what He taught. Martha, however, was busy being the hostess. She was preparing a big meal for all of her guests. Which is a lot of work. And she got upset that her sister wasn’t helping. In the New Living translation of this passage, Martha asks Jesus, “Doesn’t this seem unfair?”
OK, let’s stop right there. If we are ever asking ourselves if something is fair or not, we need to stop. Full stop. My husband always told our daughter that “”fair” is where pigs win ribbons.” This life is not fair. We need to accept it and stop fighting it. If you want to really dig into that topic, it’s not fair that Jesus had to die for us. But we seem to be OK with things being unfair if they are in our favor.
Now we resume our regularly scheduled programming about priorities, which is what God is really trying to get my attention about. There are so many really good, really important things in our lives. But not one of those is more important than God. Not one.
Mary chose to sit at the feet of Jesus to learn from Him. That was the right choice, the correctly prioritized choice. It’s as if Jesus is trying to say, “Cooking is good. Being hospitable is good and I am grateful. But let’s wait on the good and focus on the BEST. I think I’ve proven that I can handle food shortage issues. And if you focus on Me first, the details and logistics and temporary problems will be handled. In fact, they will be handled with more ease and less offert than if you did them first. Do you trust me enough to put Me first? Do you trust Me enough to remove and refuse all distractions in order to give me your full attention before you handle lesser matters? I want your time with me to be your “One Thing” that is most important. Do you trust me enough to do that?”
This is what God has been repeatedly saying to me. There is so much “good” stuff that needs to be done, but I need to set aside time, and remove all distractions, to focus on the best.
The image that keeps coming to my mind is that of being given CPR to save my life, but all the while I’m trying to look at my phone. My phone is a major distraction for me. And God has gently shown me that this is a symptom of pride. I mistakenly think I am more important than I am. That I am needed immediately every hour that I’m awake. Well, my friends, that’s a lie based in pride. I confess. And even though I can now see this error, I am still struggling to remove the distractions during my morning time with God and especially when I am writing. There’s a verse in Galatians that has this one sentence in it: “You are not that important.”
If our priorities are rightly aligned, we should be willing to set down the chores, the work, the phone, the emails, the problems, the stressors, the health issues, our spouses, our children…. and simply sit at the feet of Jesus. If that means we have to get up earlier or stay up later or block out time during the day, then that’s what we do. Because it is the highest priority. It’s the best priority. And Jesus is gently reminding me of that. That my time with Him and my work for Him is so precious that no other thing should be allowed to interfere.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
What “good” things interfere with the “best” thing, which is spending time with God?
What would it look like for you to sit at the feet of Jesus today?
What are your major distractors? (Keep in mind, these things are probably all “good” things.)
How do you see yourself like Martha? How can you be more like Mary?
How would prioritizing Jesus and refuting distractions help with daily renewal?