January 14, 2010

“One Thing” Leads to Everything!

But only “one thing” is needed – Luke 10:42 (NIV)

Luke talks about the lives of sisters Martha, and Mary in Luke 10:38-42. From other gospels, we know that they are from a village called Bethany and are the sisters of Lazarus who was raised from death by our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus was particularly attracted by Mary’s devotion to His Word and her gesture (Verse 39) “sitting at the feet of Jesus.” She has done this in couple of other occasions as well. We read in John 11, that when Mary and Martha’s brother Lazarus died, and when Jesus approached their village, Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, “she fell at his feet” (John 11: 32) and said, "Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died." We also read in John 12: 1-3, “Six days before the Passover, Jesus arrived at Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus' honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; “she poured it on Jesus' feet” and wiped His feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.” Mary of Bethany, every time it is mentioned about her in the Bible, she is found at the feet of Jesus. In the passage from Luke 10: 38-42, Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. But Mary was found sitting at the feet of Jesus listening to the Word. Mary was distracted and became judgmental and started complaining to Jesus about her sister. Martha saw her sister Mary only “sitting” but did not realize she is “sitting at the feet of Jesus and listening to His words.”  Now Jesus intervenes and says in Verse 41, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

The One thing God desires from us is to be with Him and listen to His Words. In simple terms, ‘He loves to hang around with us.” Do you love to hang around with Him? His presence means, comfort and hope. The first question in the Westminster Confession of Faith Shorter Catechism is “What is the chief end of man?” The answer is: Man's chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him for ever. God loves to have an intimate relationship with us; He desires to talk to us every moment and above all He loves when we glorify Him through our lives. We enjoy His companionship when we sit in His feet and listen to Him. He enjoys and loves our companionship as well. Sitting at His feet and listening means, to worship Him and adore Him on a daily basis. We get his counsel for the challenges we face daily in our lives and ministries. So often we are busy, concerned, and distracted with the worries of the world.  We are overly committed and burdened in our ministries by running around pleasing people. “Serving” God is important but we will easily worn out and easily get discouraged and soon may start complaining about people. But “Sitting” in God’s presence is even more the prime thing needed to receive mercy and grace to handle life challenges and ministry challenges as well. Unless, like Mary we learn to sit at the feet of Jesus and listen to Him and ask for His directions in our own lives, families, and ministries, we can never be like good Martha diligently serving our Lord.

The one prime thing (sitting in His feet and listening) that we choose will lead to everything in life and in ministry. When you take Christ, you get everything! All things are ours! (1 Corinthians 3:21).

Once a wealthy Roman who had a son, and the son spent his life in careless ways and was leading an ungodly life. He spent his dad’s money for evil things and lived in wilderness. This notorious son broke his wealthy dad’s heart because of his wicked ways. The wealthy man had a slave, Marcelus, a committed person who won his master’s heart and admiration for his dedicated work at the rich man’s home. The wealthy man decided on his death bed to disown and disinherit his son and leave everything to his slave, Marcellus. He wrote all the papers accordingly and called his son to tell him, what he had done: “I have decided and deeded everything to the slace Marcellus,” he said. “However, you may choose one item from my estate for yourself.” The son replied: “I’ll take Marcellus!”

When you choose Christ as your prime companion of your life, you get everything, because all life’s blessings are Christ’s. To be in Christ is to have been given all that belongs to Him including His righteousness.

Remember, “One Thing” leads you to everything in Life!

Prayer: Father, help me to invest my time in your presence and help me to sit at your feet and learn so I may serve you under your most eminent guidance.

May you have a Christ-honoring Day!