Jesus welcomed the people, taught them about the Kingdom of God and healed those in need. Luke 9:11

Seeds of the Kingdom

Sitting but Distracted

by Linda Fode

24 September 2008

« Previous Day | Next Day »

Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word. But Martha was distracted with much serving...

Luke 10: 38-39, NKJV

The story of Martha and Mary is perhaps a familiar one, but it’s only in the New King James Version of the Bible that we find the following translation: ‘And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word.’

It’s frequently taught that Mary put her relationship with Jesus first while Martha was the worker, the anxious one, the sister with misplaced priorities; the one that was chastised by Jesus.

But I don’t believe that’s the issue. The issue is that even though she spent time with Jesus, welcoming Him warmly into her home, she was too distracted to benefit from the event. She was too distracted to be at peace and enjoy the time with Jesus in her home. In other words she was too worried and pulled away by something else. She was too anxious; too occupied or busy.

When she did finally approach Jesus, it was with a complaint, full of resentment and bitterness. Expressing her emotions of bitterness, anger and frustration to Jesus wasn’t the problem, however.

I believe that the problem for Martha was that she had never learned to look into the face of Jesus’ and receive His love as He looked at her - that look of approval or pleasure. She missed His comfort. She lost the joy of the event. Perhaps she was locked into memories of the past or concerns about the future. Whatever it was, she had lost the enjoyment of the present moment.

If we could have known the full story I’m sure we would have seen that when Jesus spoke the words 'Martha, Martha', he did so with loving eyes.

Question: Is there anything distracting me - pulling me away from the comfort, peace, and direction that come from sitting 'at the feet of Jesus'? Has my serving Jesus got in the way of my being with Jesus?

Prayer: Jesus, today I choose to let You look at me and raise my head to look into Your eyes. Today I choose to let go of the distractions and just be with You.


Linda Fode and her husband Allen were the founding directors of Ellel Ministries Canada West. They stepped down from that position in October 2012. Linda’s passion is to mentor people in their relationship with the Father and to release them into their destiny in God.

 

Sign Up Now

Please feel free to use this devotional to send on to your friends or share with your church fellowship. Provided full acknowledgement is made to Seeds of the Kingdom as the source, you are also welcome to use it in a non-commercial way and reproduce it in magazines or other Christian websites. The copyright for any commercial use of the material remains with Ellel Ministries International.