Today's Devotional Thought
April 30, 2010 by Rachel Piferi
Overwhelmed?
Do you ever feel like you have a million things to get done and you can’t possibly do it all? And, maybe you look around and feel like no one is helping you and no one understands what you are trying to get done? I am sure you have.
We can learn a lot from the familiar story of Mary and Martha. In this story, Jesus is visiting the home of his dear friends Lazarus, Mary, and Martha. And, when he is there, Martha is busy working to insure that her guest is well treated while he is visiting. And, she begins to become frustrated when she notices that her sister is not helping her with everything that has to be done to host Jesus for the evening.
When she expresses her frustration with her sister, Jesus interjects and tells her that she doesn’t need to be worried about all of these things and that her sister has actually made the wise choice to just sit with Jesus. And he subtly reminds her that all of the busy work is for things that will pass away, but that Mary is spending time on something that will not pass away: her relationship with Jesus.
If you look earlier in the story, you will notice that Martha comments that Mary left her to sit with Jesus which implies that she likely was helping her sister Martha until Jesus arrived. And then when Jesus arrived, she stopped working and sat at his feet. What a great example of setting priorities!
In your life, you are likely to have people and duties that compete for your time. And, I am sure that there are many days where you feel as if you did not accomplish what you needed to accomplish. But on those days, please don’t neglect the relationships in your life or your time at the feet of Jesus. As Jesus says, sitting at his feet and spending time with him is so much better than anything else we can be doing. And, as Mary did, do your work and then take time to sit at Jesus’ feet, even if the work is not done yet. Because there will always be more things to accomplish in our lives, but the only thing that truly matters is spending time with Jesus.
December