God has made it very clear that He wants us to live a powerful life in the Spirit. We know this because Jesus Christ taught us in Matthew 6:10 that we should pray God’s Will to be done on earth as it is in heaven. In heaven, everything is beautiful and joyful, because every being that exists there does so with unshakeable faith in God. It’s His Will for earth to be exactly the same way, but our doubt prevents this. Doubt is not a part of heaven’s culture, but it is still too prevalent here in the earth. We doubt God’s ability. We doubt His love for us, and we doubt whether He will bless us and cause our heart’s desires to become a reality. Doubt is an enemy of God, and therefore it is an enemy to our faith in Him. Our greatest goal in life should be to get rid of doubt and increase our faith in our Heavenly Father. When we do this, we can have a life that is pleasing to Him and very satisfying to us as well.
You’ve probably heard someone complaining about how unfair they believe life is. They say they can’t catch a break because something bad is always happening to them. Feeling defeated and sad, they don’t think they’ll ever be as happy with their lives as they want to be. You might feel a little bit like this as well. The reality is that some of us have been through terrible heartache and pain. We’ve suffered tremendous loss, and because of it, we’ve lost hope. Some have even shut down internally. We just don’t believe things will get any better for us. This is doubt, and it blinds us to the wonderful hope we have in Christ.
God wants everyone to know and believe that there is hope in Jesus Christ. We open the door to this hope when we stop trying to handle things on our own and totally surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ. In Matthew 11:28-30(NLT), he invites us, “28 Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.” Jesus Christ is inviting us to lean totally on him, because he is full of power and love, and he is willing to help us.
We might not view ourselves this way, but many of us begin very early to react to experiences and encounters in life in a certain way, with emotions and feelings that really become our ‘go-to’ reactions. We begin to see things only one way and refuse to see situations and circumstances differently. This can keep us stuck if these patterns become a habit. Sometimes the attitudes, thoughts, and behaviors we think are right are not, and they are doing us harm. Jesus Christ gave us marvelous insight into this in Luke 10:38-42(NLT).
In this passage, Jesus visited Mary and Martha in their home in Bethany. Martha was the keeper of the home, and from this we can gather that she was principle in its care and comfort. Jesus Christ went about doing good wherever he went, but he did not travel alone; most often the disciples were with him. News of his tremendous compassion and wonder working power was talked about all over. His followers knew that it was a highly esteemed privilege to entertain Jesus and his disciples. So, we can well imagine that as a woman living during those times, Martha would have felt a particular duty and weight of this responsibility to welcome the Messiah and his company into her home properly.
Martha was like so many of us. She felt it was necessary for her to carry the brunt of responsibilities and burdens on her own. Many of us do this because we don’t trust that others will complete the task as detailed as we would. Others of us take on the burden of everything because we don’t believe we will have any help. We don’t feel free in our souls to pursue lighter choices. Martha might have felt this way, but her sister, Mary, didn’t. Mary sat at the feet of Jesus, listening intently to him teach. What better place to be?
Martha was distracted with the details of the big dinner she was preparing. Verse 40 tells us, “She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.” Even those without sisters can put themselves in Martha’s shoes. We know exactly the tone and tenor of her feelings in that moment. In her mind, this was serious shade thrown by her own sister, Mary. Although it might even have been Mary’s habit pattern to leave Martha to do all the work, in that moment, it was appropriate for all effort and labor to cease, and all eyes to focus on Jesus. He said to Martha in verse 41, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! 42 There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Mary sat down to hear the message of Christ. She stopped everything to attune her soul to Jesus, so that he could nourish it. How many of us do the same? We should, because focusing on him, the living Word, is the only thing we need to be concerned about. Martha is admirable in many respects. There is no doubt that her intentions were framed from a pursuit of excellence, but we would be remised if we did not consider the eminent danger to her soul had she continued to fail to recognize that God’s Word is everything to us. Martha was carried away with her efforts, but Mary was resting in the truth that Jesus was teaching. We must follow Mary’s pattern.
The Provider, the Way-Maker, was in their midst, willing to share with them great keys of the Kingdom, but Martha was so distracted with her efforts that she was about to miss the greatest feast of all, the truth, our Master Jesus. She was about to miss the ginormous opportunity to be fed spiritually by Jesus Christ. Had Jesus not snapped her into consciousness, her need to preserve routine could have overridden the liberty that he presented. Many of us miss out this way as well. The world is a very wicked place, and life can indeed be challenging, but we were never meant to go through it alone. God is with us. We cannot continue to see threats where there are opportunities. We must shift our focus to Jesus Christ and the help he is always willing to give us.
He said to the disciples in Mark 11:22, “Have faith in God.” Our Heavenly Father commands us to have faith in Him not because He’s putting the hammer down, but because there is no moment in which He will not hold us up with His mighty right hand. There is no moment in which His love is removed from us. He’s with us an eternity, every moment of every day. Through Jesus Christ we can rest in the presence of Heavenly Father, knowing He is the Almighty God; knowing He is our Provision and the Provider of all that is good. He will never fail us.
God has given us faith, and it is the basis of our relationship with Him through Jesus Christ. Our faith in God causes us to remain anchored in Christ, so that we are strong and confident, come what may. Don’t allow yourself to sink into the abyss of doubt and fear. Instead, make the choice to have faith in God. Again, knowing Him by studying and reading His Word is the one thing worth being concerned about, because His Word transforms us. So, give yourself the greatest gift and cast all your cares on God. Surrender to Him totally, and you will be amazed by what He does in your life.■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
“Only One Thing Worth Being Concerned About!” , written for Springfield Fellowship © 2023. All rights reserved. All praise and honor to God through Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.