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| Do I have the Martha’s symptoms? |
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I believe this is the second part of my post “When life is so daily!”. I really want to say Thanks for all your words. I just want to make sure that everybody understood that I feel blessed, and my life is the result of my prayers.
However my discontentment goes beyond posetions but spiritual grow. Because of that I’m trying to meditate about the importance of “waiting on Him.” Let me be honest, sometimes It seems like such a waste of time to me and to my soul. Why would I just sit with Jesus when there are tons of other things I could do for Him or study about Him?
Maybe I have the Martha’s symptoms. I realized that this reality baffled Martha, but Jesus tried to help her and make it clear that what Mary was doing was more profitable when He said “only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” Even as I read Luke 10:38-42 at this moment, I am encouraged to continue cultivating the discipline of simply sitting with Jesus and listening to Him. But it’s hard for a hyper person to be still!
“Doing nothing ELSE” has become in a worry and bother me a lot, but only one thing is needed. It is this place of intimacy with Jesus that true life is imparted. His words are full of grace and truth, and they are spirit and life to us (John 1:14, 6:63, Psalm 45:2).
Brothers and sister I must learn the simplicity of sitting with our Lord just to be with Him. Our spirit longs to rest, and many times in the word we are exhorted to rest in the Lord or wait on the Lord, for He is our strength (Psalm 46:10, Is. 8:7, 40:31).
Learning to wait is so hard for me!!!!!, and yet, so rewarding. I am becoming more and more convinced about what Paul says in Galatians 6:8 that “He who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap eternal life.” I am seeing that in all that we do in God, whether it is meditating, reading the word, singing the word, praying, or waiting on the Lord, we are sowing into our spiritual garden. Many times I don’t perceive what is happening in my spirit, but I continually set myself before the Lord in these disciplines, knowing that even if I don’t feel or see any results at the time of the activity, I am setting myself up for future encounter. There is such beauty in the principal of sowing and reaping. I sow a little now and I reap a lot later, much in this life and even more in the ages to come.
With this in my mind, the place of waiting is also a place of weakness. Many times I will sit with Jesus, but nothing seems to happen. Neither do I hear His voice (the word doesn’t connect with me), nor do I feel Him at all (my emotions are not stirred).
I feel very weak in this place of waiting, but each time I sit with Him I believe that He is changing me from the inside out, even when I cannot perceive anything to be happening. But then at a future time, His presence becomes so close, so that all the times of what seemed to be barrenness were worth it when He comes. Thus, whether I can sense His presence or not, I believe that He is changing me from glory to glory as I gaze on Him and sit with Him (2 Cor 3:18).
I have learned over time that He wants to meet with me so much more than I want to meet with Him. That this thing that burns me inside for Him, he also feel the same for me and BIGGER!!!!
We have to begin to believe that He wants to come and touch us more than we want Him to touch us, for He first loved us, and because of His love we now love Him (1 Jn 4:19).
Look what I read yesterday and I found this as the answer to my prayer, “We in the western world get so caught up in our evangelical mindset of reaching out to God, when all the time God wants us to rest in His word and wait on Him so that He can touch us.”
As we believe that He first loved us and gave Himself for us, we will be freed up to just sit with Him, be with Him, and not do all of the things we think we have to get done in our time of devotion with the Lord. Jesus declares His longing for us to be with Him when He prayed “Father, I desire that those you have given me may be with me where I am” (Jn 17:24). It is His desire for us that will strengthen us and give us peace to simply wait on Him and find the peace that He left for us (Jn 16:33).
From the place of intimacy with Jesus, we will be able to do all that we do in this life better! As He loves us, we are able to love Him back and fulfill the first commandment of loving God! His love also opens up our hearts to then do the second commandment well. Loving our neighbors is so much easier when we daily encounter His everlasting, unfailing, and perfect love.
I’m in the process of learning to get back to the simplicity of sitting with and waiting on Jesus as Mary did ...just to be with Him, for He has everlasting pleasures (Psalm 16:11)
I do not want o be a Martha!
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| Ah, to sit at the Master's feet ! |
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Libia |
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February 22, 2008 at 7:04am |
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| ummmm! well I think you find ansewrs to the problem. To be honest we i also find hard to just wait. That's why sometime we work much at church and get more responsability, believing that that make us closer to od, when he only wants us to sit next to Him and do nothing! |
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| Many of us share this problem.... I think many more of us identify with Martha than Mary. It takes a real spiritual mindset to see the benefits of sitting rather than doing. I certainly fall prey to this often. Thanks for sharing your thoughts, Jenily! |
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Jenily |
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February 22, 2008 at 7:10am |
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| Thanks Mike...i missed you! |
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| You are definitely not the only one who struggles with this. I'm pretty sure that anyone whose career is in the church can say the same (I know I do). How many times do we plan a church activity or event, and then after everything is in place, we finally ask God what He thinks? He should be the first one we go to. We are an Army of doing (hence Doing The Most Good), yet our relationship with the One we are doing it for suffers. I struggle with this everyday. We need to hold each other accountable. Prayer needs to be the center of everything we do. |
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sitting at the feet of Jesus, What a great feeling! yes we often try to do his work for him instead of wiating. Jesus is calling us, we need to be still and quit to hear his beautiful voice. He is working something wonderful in you. |
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Cheryl |
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February 22, 2008 at 7:16am |
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Jenily, I love your heart, so pure. I too am here with waiting patiently for God. When I think God has finished that work in me then we do it again, wow that refining is not fun! Love you sister! |
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Jenily |
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February 22, 2008 at 7:22am |
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Thanks Matt I agree 100% with your comment! |
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Donna S |
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February 22, 2008 at 7:55am |
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Thank you!!! it is sooo hard to sit and wait....I was reading in Genesis and Abram had to wait til he was 100 to have a son....Patience....
Thanks again have a blessed day |
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Jenily |
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February 22, 2008 at 7:57am |
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| Yes! my dear! it's hard |
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Laura |
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February 22, 2008 at 7:58am |
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| I know the Lord has great plans for me and it is hard for me to wait patiently on Him when I want an answer NOW. So I try to be still, talk to Him and wait for Him to respond. I am finding prayer is so important. Thanks for sharing Jenily. |
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| The One touch from God that left me yearning for more is far better than anything this life has to offer. I have realized that it is not God who does not want to be near, but it is I that cannot hear him calling for me. By doing this very thing, we exhaust ourselves in the fight to stay awake and most likely we will lose the battle. |
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Jenily |
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February 22, 2008 at 11:42am |
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| Awe! Thanks billiotale...I'm glad you like it! Blessings |
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Deb |
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February 22, 2008 at 12:04pm |
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| Great blog! Amen! |
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Trukki |
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February 22, 2008 at 6:47pm |
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| Well done. |
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Jenily |
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February 24, 2008 at 7:40am |
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| Thanks everyone! |
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JayKTX |
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February 24, 2008 at 9:21am |
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Great blog! Back when I led a busy life I thought I was a Mary. "If only" I had the time I would spend it just sitting with Him as she did. Now that my children are grown and I'm semi-retired I have had to face the truth: I'm a Martha by inclination. Sigh. But like you, I don't want to be. Holy Spirit, help us to overcome all that distracts and press into that place of abiding and adoring our Lord. Change us from glory to glory as we wait on Him. Help us to taste of the heavenly "everlasting pleasures" as we make ourselves vulnerable before our God. |
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Libia |
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February 24, 2008 at 11:24am |
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| Guao! Amen to all that! |
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Bill |
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March 04, 2008 at 5:04am |
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You know, I wonder if we are harder on Martha than Jesus ever was. Martha isn't a person to be avoided. Jesus didn't avoid her. Martha isn't a person to be detested. Jesus didn't detest her. When we put Martha under a microscope and scrutinize her, aren't we engaging in the same behaviors for which we criticize her? Oh, yes. All we want to do is sit at the feet of the Master and we'll run over Martha to get there. Did Jesus uninvite Martha to sit at His feet? No. Did Jesus discourage her from joining Mary? No. All that Jesus did was tell Martha, Mary's priorities at the moment were well set much like the table Martha wanted to set for Him. So instead of trying to avoid being a Martha (as you put it) practice being more like Jesus. It wasn't Martha with whom Jesus had a problem. It was her established priorities. He was just as gracious to Martha as He was to Mary. Martha just needed a little dose of reality. Martha may just be sitting at the feet of Jesus right now and she's probably laughing at all the bad press she's received down through the centuries. Me...I want to be like Martha and hear the gentle and truthful voice of correction of Jesus, not avoided, not detested, not uninvited, no discouragement, just corrected. Because I know when I hear that voice, I know He loves me. Peace. |
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Jenily |
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March 04, 2008 at 6:20am |
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Thank you Bill, good comment! :-)
Yep! I like your term prioritize! I won't avoid Lord's correction, because it's love! I will try to avoid martha's distraction.
thank you so much for your comment! |
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