DEVOTED
To the Call, the Ministry, the Work and the Life!
Imagine God sent you a letter which reads;
“Dear daughter, I’m on my way to your house to spend the day with you. Just boarded the next flight! I’ll be there in 8 hours. Your true friend, Jesus!
God in person, visiting me???? You know heaven will break lose, don’t you? If you are a host like me who loves perfection, you’ll stop what you are doing, change plans and think yourself sick! What am I going to cook? When will I clean up the house? oh I have not done my hair yet! And oh no! no fresh flowers! What will Jesus think if He came hungry and the food is not ready yet? What if He met the house dirty? What if….? Does this sound familiar? I mean who wouldn’t freak out if Jesus was stoping over for lunch? I’m telling you i’ll definitely be rattled!!!
Remember the story of Mary and Martha when Jesus came for dinner? Martha was so busy with the preparations for Jesus’ meal! Meanwhile Mary slipped out of the kitchen to spend time at Jesus’ feet. Martha critisized her sister and went too Jesus to complain: “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!” (Luke 10:38-42). You would think Jesus would rebuke her won’t you? Instead He praised her. He went on to say that she had chosen the one thing needed, the one thing that mattered most to Jesus.
I’m sure Martha must have been confused, asking herself why God should praise someone sitting doing nothing and reproach her when she is cooking for him so that He doesn’t leave hungry? Don’t we all ask ourselves these same type of questions? Why will they be praised when I come to church 2 hours before time, arrange the benches, clean up and make sure that the mics work properly during curch service, meanwhile they just come sit, listen and go back home?
But the bible tells us that Mary discerned the one thing needed – she saw love, wisdom, healing, peace in person and made the choice of sitting at His feet. She saw heaven on earth and chose His presence. She was preoccupied with one thing at all times- HIM. She preferred Him, she prioritized HIM. She chose to spend time worshipping HIM. She knew that time spent in His presence was time well spent. There she could tap into his love, strength and wisdom. There she could fuel herself for all acts of service unlike her sister Martha who was so distracted she didn’t discern the Miracle of the presence of Jesus. Martha failed to discern the importance and the priority of spending time with God.
Mary made a choice that indicates her hearts devotion to God. This is the choice God wants us to make today. Yes we serve in church, we run NGOs, we give to the needy. Yes we have tight schedules, we have children, we are working moms. But then, we need to know that it is of utmost importance to cease our busyness. Got wants us to stop all activities and set aside secondary things in order to focus on HIM. He doesn’t need what you can offer Him, He needs your heart, completely devoted to HIM.
Mary was a woman who was in pursuit of God’s heart and I think her example is worth copying. Did she serve and fulfill God-given responsibilities? I think so! But she quit her busyness in the kitchen immediately it was time to be at HIS feet! Amazing!!! I don’t know about you but this is where I want to be. In the presence of the Lord where I can hear His voice, feel His heartbeat, worship His name.
There, the bible gives us the assurance that spending time in His presence earns us permanent and everlasting dividends. I know sometimes it seems practically impossible for us to stay fcused on Him. But God in His love and mercy reaches down to us so that we can reach up to Him. My prayer for you and me today is that our heart for God should be like a boiling pot – hot, intense and passionate, giving Him room to invade it and fill it with complete devotion to Him and Him alone. There’s no way the Lord can ignore that kind of fire!
God loves YOU!