Are you in a flurry today? Are you busily cleaning your home, pulling together the last minute shopping lists, beginning even to prepare a bit early all that is necessary for a house full of guests? Or perhaps you are busy getting the kids (and husband?) packed for a road trip to go to the relatives’ for Christmas. This season…these days just preceding Christmas…are so jammed with BUSY-ness for so many of us! And in our flurry, our spirits and souls get worked into a tizzy so easily. We can even get agitated and irritable…all in keeping with “the spirit of the season!” Go figure!
Martha was like this in Luke 10:38-42 .
Imagine that as you are busy doing all your preparations, your husband or kids or someone who is supposed to be helping you is sitting on her bum with her bible open…serene look on her face. And all while you are working, knocking yourself out for others! Boy, that would be tough to stomach, wouldn’t it?
Martha had trouble with it, too.
Today’s lesson in The Lord’s Table workbook piggy-backs well on to the message to “Seek First God and His Kingdom” from yesterday.
The author has the participant look deeply at the Mary and Martha passage. There is a lot there. Jesus, after all, in verse 42 says that Martha is worried and bothered about so many things (can you relate?), but only one thing is necessary. Apparently, Mary had chosen that one thing–to sit at the Lord’s feet, to be still and know.
I don’t want to “ruin” this lesson for those of you who may be going through the workbook or may be considering purchasing it, but this is so rich, I don’t want anyone left out! I will just include teasers here. I found this study very rich and encouraging.
Being still and sitting at the Master’s feet:
1. Indicates humility.
One of the things that is at the top of my personal list when someone asks me “What made the difference for you this time when you began to ‘do’ Thin Within? Why has it ‘worked’ this time after all the years of failure before?” And I have to say that God has brought home the message that my pride is what causes me to grab at more food than is my allotted portion. So doing what I can to retrain an attitude of humility is vital. Mind you, I don’t always succeed, but one reason why I have a gratitude blog is to keep myself aware of the fact that God is God and I am not. This helps me to be humble. I don’t tend to grab for MY “rights,” MY way, MY food or insist that this is MY body quite so frequently when I intentionally try to esteem God as God and take a posture of appropriate lowliness. Not self-debasement. That isn’t what the Lord wants, but of an awareness that I am the clay and HE is the potter.
2. Indicates Submission
When I sit at the feet of Jesus each day and throughout the day ask Him humbly what HIS will in this moment, for this conversation, how he wants me to spend my energies, I am saying I am willing to do what He says. He is my authority. I am surrendering my will to His. Scriptures say that when I submit to the Lord, I will have peace. I have found this to be true.
3. Indicates a spirit of LEARNING
I have done this Thin Within thing for a long time. I collaborated on the book with the Hallidays and co-wrote the first release of the Thin Within workbook (which has since been edited by many talented others). I literally “wrote the book” if you will. I don’t say that in arrogance, as God called me to do that before I had strung together two victorious days in a row. I was still struggling in habitual sin and didn’t have a clue.
That said, I have found that I have so much to learn. This isn’t about eating, weight, and all of that. It is about following hard after the Lord. This is a lifetime journey. It doesn’t end. Ever. I have so much to learn. In humility, with a spirit of submission, I want to follow Mary’s example and choose to learn from Jesus. There is peace in that place.
4. Incidates Faith.
The very fact that Mary sat at Jesus’ feet indicates that she believed something was going to happen…that she was on the edge of her seat, if you will. She anticipated being transformed, growing…How like Mary I want to be. I want to believe Jesus and what He says is true now. I want to believe him for what he says he is doing…I want to wait on him and anticipate all that he promises to come to fulfillment.
Mike Cleveland points out that it is by faith that we gain victory over our sin. I have to believe that if I deny my flesh that God is taking this as a deposit in changing, transforming my character–not just my body.
5. Indicates a Holding to His Teaching
I am to hear, believe and obey like Mary did. John 8 says that if I hear, believe, and obey, I will know the truth and the truth will set me free.
6. Indicates a Loving of the Lord Jesus
I want to pursue a love relationship with him as my one holy obsession. I want to grow to know Him more. As I do, I know I can’t help but to love him more. As I love him more, I want to be humble, submit, learn from, believe, and hold to his teaching…it is a big wonderful cycle that infuses more love into my heart for him which in turn infuses more willingness to surrender and obey.
All which comes by “doing” this “one thing.” Sitting at his feet.
I want to sit at his feet each morning, but God is also showing me that throughout the day, even in the midst of moving my own feet, being about my own busy-ness, I can still my heart and know that He is God, rekindle my awareness of Him. The Soul Revolution 60-60 experiment is a great way to do this…and it helps a lot.
Starting my day with a focused time with the Lord helps me so very much. I am so thankful that He is ever mindful of me.
NEW!
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Right now I am on my 9th batch of cookies, with 4 more batches to be accomplished after I finish off this. I have praise music going, stopping every now and than to just stand and worship our Lord. I’ve been praying alot lately about having a Martha’s productivity but with a Mary’s heart. Chores still need to be done, shedules still keep going, but I NEED to have a Mary’s heart, sitting at our Lord’s feet and worshipping Him, resting in Him and loving Him.Thank you once again for pointing the way to Jesus.
Like, Angela, I will have my praise music on when I am cooking this evening. I also want to have Mary’s heart and take time to sit at the feet of Jesus. Christmas is about my Lord and Savior,Jesus Christ. He has been so good to me. I want to give Him the honor He is due.
We are celebrating Advent in a very different way this year. My husband and I only bought each other one large gift in early December. So we didn’t need to shop or wrap many gifts for each other. We sent and received cards from friends and relatives. We spent a few hours together one afternoon baking cookies, which we can also give to neighbors. We also play Christmas music all day long to remind us to focus on the real reason for this season. We decorated our house and put up a small tree, even though we expected no gifts under the tree. His family opted to not exchange gifts. I exchanged magazine subscriptions and gift cards with my family. However we gave gifts to neighbors and didn’t expect anything in return. Because Seattle has so much snow and so few snow plow trucks, many roads are unpassable. We have not driven anywere for almost a week. Bus service was severely impaired. So my husband took 2 snow days last week and planned Christmas week as vacation time. We have walked everywhere we needed to go. So we have taken long daily walks in the snow, for groceries or just to feed birds who would otherwise go hungry. I treasure how the snowy weather has curtailed our usual advent activities and forced us to slow down, spend a LOT of time together and ponder what Christmas really means to us without all the usual shopping and wrapping and holiday activities.