One of the fundamental truths found throughout the Bible is that God is not a God of doctrines, but a personal God. He wants a relationship with His children. He wants to have a relationship with you.
I love the story of Mary and Martha, as it illustrates my life so well. Let us read it together: Luke 10:38-42:
“As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, ‘Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!’
‘Martha, Martha,’ the Lord answered, ‘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.’” NIV
My life used to be like Martha’s life. I was hurrying to do the Lord’s work, busy doing this and that and getting quite upset when I saw other Christians who weren’t getting involved with the church.
Notice verse 40, Martha was “distracted”. The Greek word for distracted is perispao, which means: “to draw away”. Martha’s attention was drawn away from what mattered: Jesus presence and company. What was she drawn away with? “By all the preparations that had to be made.” Now, you may say that preparations can be a good thing. But in this case, who was it that decided those preparations had to be made? Jesus? No. It was Martha herself! How often is it that we are drawn away from what really matters: Jesus Christ!
What was the result of Martha being drawn away? She blamed Jesus for monopolizing Mary’s time, and she comes pretty close to ordering Jesus to rebuke her sister! This is what happens when we are to busy working for the Lord that there is no time left to spend with Him! I can identify completely with this. But did all my “work” for the Lord bring me any peace? None at all. In fact, just like Martha, I got upset. I worried.
Jesus replied to Martha: “You are worried and upset about many things”. The Greek word for worried is “merimnao”, which includes the ideas of anxiety, concern, striving after, and, sometimes, brooding. Worry was interfering with Martha’s chance to get to know Jesus. She expected Jesus to be hungry for food, but He wasn’t. Instead, He hungered for fellowship! She thought she was serving the Lord, and in a way she was. But she did not know the Lord. Mary, on the other hand, recognized what Martha had completely overlooked.
Jesus is still the same today. He isn’t “starving” for the works we do for Him. He doesn’t want you to be so occupied with the church that you hardly have time to breathe. He is starving for friendship and relationship with you!
You can decide to act like Martha, but this will not bring you any inner peace, because being busy for the Lord and being involved in your church does not mean that you know your Lord. Or you can act like Mary and find out what Jesus meant in Matt 11:28-29 “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” You can take your time to get to know Jesus and walk with Him. Only when you start to have fellowship with Him will you experience inner peace. The choice is yours!
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