Happy Saturday, Friends!
If you haven’t joined Adult Bible School and are still considering it, I wanted to share an excerpt to show you guys what it’s about. Three days of scripture reading and breakdown by yours truly, and on day four we review a character.
After getting the scoop on Martha and the feel of Bible School, you decide you may want to join? Join Free HERE online through Monday only or to put your fingers and highlighters on it yourself with this here Adult Bible School Downloadable Digital Copy
Let’s take a look!
Meet Martha.
Read Luke 10: 38-42 and re-read John 11:17-45.
The most applicable verse to the character of Martha is shown in Luke 10:40.
“but Martha was distracted by all of 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 for myself? Tell her to help me.”
Mary is the older sister of Lazarus and Mary. This probably set her at a predisposition to ‘care’ about the order of things, but Martha’s greatest flaw was worrying about the details, something I’m sure all of us are guilty of.
We get caught up in the details. So did Martha.
When I think about Martha, I always go to the story in Luke. I see myself shuffling around my house trying to get things ready for company or for a dinner, and if you’ve ever been to myself or know my family, this is basically a joke in and of itself… but I try. I’ve also been guilty of Martha’s attitude of why aren’t y’all helping.
Martha gets so preoccupied getting the appearance together, that she forgets about the company, and while this is often true of anything we try to organize event wise… how does this apply to our hearts?
The Lord laid a conviction on my heart not terribly long ago. He told me “it doesn’t matter, be me.”
I’ll explain.
We are all surrounded with difficult relationships. I truly believe that we’ve all got ‘that’ person in our lives. He or she is no more guilty than you and I, but it doesn’t feel this way to us.
I get in these situations that admittedly, I probably stir up myself… and then I want to run to God and say DO YOU NOT SEE THIS? I want to demand things from Him like Martha, only seeing the surface. God, do something, but He had a different answer for me. “Katie, I don’t care what the situation, warranted or not, be Me.”
Y’all. For me, this took me and the 90’s bracelet W.W.J.D to a new level.
Someone lied on you. Don’t defend yourself; what would Jesus do?
You were deliberately hurt by someone and now they need something from you? Don’t take the opportunity to stick your tongue out at them and wave your fingers by your ears (literally felt like this before); what would Jesus do?
This one is a hard one. You’re given (by Satan) the perfect opportunity to plead your case, or even tell people just how bad so-and-so did you. Don’t. What would Jesus do?
And so to the best of my human ability, I tried to give the Lord what He asked of me. I’ve fallen short, of course. I can say with certainty I will again, however, when I had reached a suitable place of obedience… God gave me more.
“Now mean it.”
I wish my keyboard allowed emojis; I could give you a few.
I was blown down because I thought I was making great efforts and strides in my previous instructions.
There will always be more with Jesus, but He will never ask too much. I think that’s why I was given a step and a heavy amount of time to re-route myself in His directions… He gave me so many miles to walk that way before calling out my next turn. My own personal GPS. “Follow the words I say, and when it’s time I will tell you when to turn so you don’t get lost. If you pay close enough attention, I’ll also re-route you if you do.”
Here is the Martha in this.
I was paying attention to the details of the task, instead of the task itself.
God never called us to look like Christians. He called us to be them.
It was better of me to look like I was trying to live the life I was called to, but what about actually meaning it?
God wants our hearts. If we can fully give Him our hearts, through them, He will rebuild our lives.
That is the goal. Jesus is the Goal.
“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed- or indeed only one. Mary has chose what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
That verse, put in this perspective, is fire, ladies.
God says I am all that matters. Sitting at My feet and hearing what I say, learning what I say, is the single most right choice we can make in our lives.
I worry about friendships where I live, for my babies, I want them included. I fear them not being. God says I’m worried and upset, but choose My feet over friendships.
I get upset when I hear things louder than I hear God’s truths. God says it doesn’t matter, I do.
I get worried about the details of my past, things real to me and things real to others about me, and God says You made the right choice. Satan will certainly try to steal your joy, but the choice you’ve made, you will always have. It’s all you’ll ever need.
There are so many little details in our lives we want to clean up, that we want to make better, and y’all we wear ourselves out for appearances. This results in us being too tired for the Lord.
We’re doing all the things, going all the places, and when we make it to our beds to say our prayers… we have the nerve to ask God to do something when we’ve taken no initiative to read anything.
God has already spoken.
He still speaks… but we’re too tired or too busy to read it. Maybe I just don’t understand it, The Bible, I can’t.
When you pursue God and His word with all of your heart, with your plans and intentions set aside, He will absolutely reveal Himself to you. I promise. The problem is, we approach God with our problems, like Martha, and we also come with answers.
God do you see her? Tell her to help me.
God do you see how they treat me; make them stop. God, do you see how bad we’re struggling in our marriage; fix my husband. God, my dad will not quit drinking, make him go to rehab.
God doesn’t need our help running the universe; He only needs our cooperation. Few things are needed, in fact only one.
Give Him your heart. Not the one you post on facebook, the real one without all of the fake details. That is the one He can fix.
If we are going to get real with God, We’ve got to get real with ourselves.
XOXO,
