The Good Part

We are consumed with our lives, but we seem to be consumed with very little Jesus.  We are consumed with our children.  We are consumed with our careers.  We are consumed with ourselves and our circumstances.  We are even consumed with our ministry.  But where is Christ in all of that?  Where is His quiet, abiding presence in the frantic pace of our lives?

I think back to several years ago when God showed me that I was allowing ministry activity to replace my relationship with Him.  My error was so subtle and I would have never realized I was doing it unless He had taken mercy on me and pointed it out.  We can so easily get off course and allow what we are doing for Him to become more important than what He is doing in us.  We so easily sacrifice quiet time at His feet, for results and productivity.  We allow our desire to make an impact for Him and to bear fruit for Him to be our motivation, instead of allowing His work in us to be our motivation-- work that can only be done while we sit in surrender at His feet.  We get into a pattern in which our desire to bear fruit begins to smother our faith in the sufficiency of the Fruit-giver and we work according to productive methods rather than by the power of His Spirit. 

At Luke 10:38-42, we are told about Jesus' visit to Mary and Martha's house.  Verses 39 & 40 tell us that Mary was "seated at the Lord's feet, listening to His word. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations."  Martha was consumed with doing things that legitimately needed to be done.  She was likely organizing meal preparation for the Lord, so she asked Jesus, "Do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone?  Then tell her to help me" (v. 40).  I'm pretty sure Martha expected Jesus to take her side, especially since she was busy and distracted doing things that were actually for Him.  But He didn't.  Instead He replied, "You are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary....Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her" (v.42).  So many of us are distracted and bothered about so many things, and we are in gross neglect of the only thing that is truly necessary.  We are too busy to stop and sit in silence at Jesus' feet, seeking the good part and intentionally surrendering to the work that needs to be done in us by His word.

Again at John 12:1-9, we see Jesus visiting Mary and Martha.  Jesus had come to their home for supper one night, and again we are told that "Martha was serving" (v.2).  Again, Martha was busy with things that legitimately needed to be done.  And again, we find Mary at Jesus' feet.  We are told that Mary took a jar of costly perfume and poured it onto Jesus' feet and then wiped His feet with her hair (v.3).  I don't know about you, but if I was in the kitchen doing all the work to feed a bunch of guests at me and my sister's house and she was in the living room pouring out my expensive perfume everywhere and rubbing her hair all over people's feet, I'd be like, "Jesus, take the wheel before I slap my sister upside her head."  But Martha didn't say a word.  Maybe she learned her lesson from the last time she complained to Jesus, I don't know.  What I do know is that she still hadn't learned her lesson about choosing the "good part," because we still find her busy and distracted.

This time, it was Judas that complained to Jesus about Mary.  He complained that Mary was wasting the perfume on Jesus' feet, when it should have been sold and the money used to help the poor (v.5).  From Judas' perspective, Mary was wasting her time at Jesus' feet.  From Judas' perspective, productivity was more important than relationship.  His desire to have control over his circumstances was smothering his desire to be transformed.  And once again, we see Jesus taking up for Mary and her willingness to invest her time in surrender at Jesus' feet when He tells Judas, "Leave her alone....you always have the poor with you, but you do not always have Me" (v.7,8).  The perfume she poured upon her Savior's feet was expensive, thus her devotion to Him was costly, just as transformation is costly, but it was an investment she was willing to make.  Judas was not willing to pay the price of transformation, he saw Mary's devotion as a waste of resources and time, and his lack of investment in Christ ultimately led him down the path of rejecting Him altogether.

Like Martha, so many of us are distracted with all our activity or our seemingly overwhelming circumstances (Luke 10:40).  Like Judas, many of us sacrifice the quiet, abiding presence of Christ as we bow down to the altar of results, productivity and control.  However, for us to sit at Jesus' feet, we must be like Mary, whose level of devotion was costly. We will have to sacrifice some activities that bring us or our children pleasure, so we can invest that time in Christ.  We will have to forsake some things that legitimately need to be done so we can choose the "good part" and spend that time sitting at Jesus' feet.  We will have to "cease striving" and trust God to be God in our circumstances, no matter how complicated or overwhelming they may be (Ps 46:10).  So many of us are moving along at the frantic pace of our lives, trying to get through each day without first having spent time in surrender at Jesus' feet.  So many of us are consumed with our lives, having comforted ourselves with thoughts about Christ or our service for Christ, at the sacrifice of seeking His actual presence. 

"Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch is not able to bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine and you are the branches. The one who remains in Me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from Me you can do nothing." (John 15:4,5)

"Just as the living Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so the one who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread that came down from heaven. Your ancestors ate manna and died, but whoever feeds on this bread will live forever." (John 6:57,58)

"But if anyone keeps His word, the love of God has been truly perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him:  Whoever claims to abide in Him must walk as Jesus walked." (1 John 2:5,6)

"In Him and through faith in Him we may enter God's presence with boldness and confidence." (Eph 3:12)