Skip to main content

Thoughts From the Once-A-Day Devotional: Walk With Jesus

Dear Friends,

Today I send out a "thought" that is simply an often needed reminder: the truth that serving Jesus is necessary, but stilling ourselves before Him, to learn from Him and adore Him, is better. This selection comes from the, Once-a-Day Devotional: Walk With Jesus. The entry is entitled, "Discovering the One Necessary Thing." Enjoy.


Few things are needed, indeed only one.  Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.   Luke 10:42

"How do you show God that you love him? You might answer that question by listing how often you go to church. Or attend Bible Study. Or teach a Sunday School class. Or give an offering. But in the final analysis, your activities for God aren't the best barometer of your adoration. Your attitude toward him is.

A. W. Tozer explains that God wants more than just our output: "Some Christians feel it is a mark of spirituality to attend banquets, seminars, workshops, and conferences week after week. This brings up a lesson concerning Martha and Mary. I think it is plain that Martha loved Jesus, but her concept of devotion was activity. Mary also loved Jesus, but with a different attitude in her devotion. She was fervently occupied in spirit with her love for him. Our Lord marked the distinction then, and he marks the distinction today. Jesus commended Mary for knowing that one thing is necessary -- that God should be loved and praised above any other business which may occupy us bodily, mentally, or spiritually. He wants first an inner experience of the heart, and from that will grow the profound and divine activities which are necessary."

Our response?
Slow me down Lord. Keep me from becoming so engrossed in working for you that I fail to nurture our relationship. I have often felt the exhaustion of activity. Today let me experience a bit of the joy Mary felt - the joy of adoration. Teach me how to say "I love you Lord" while standing still. In the name of him who first demonstrated what worship is all about. Amen."

I have to say I've seen the fruit of not taking the truth of Luke 10:42 to heart. It's called burn-out. Exhaustion. Ministering from an empty well. In my 11 years pastoring in Honduras I counseled with missionaries who had been so busy serving God (and doing all those things they felt their supporters expected them to do in order to continue receiving their support) that they actually lost touch with God in the process of serving Him with all their unabated activity.


Serving the Lord is important and necessary. The work of the kingdom requires workers! But that work should never be done to the extent that we become so spiritually depleted or disconnected from God (sometimes confusing the adrenalin rush of achievement and accomplishment with the power and presence of the Holy Spirit) that we wake up one day feeling emotionally numb and wondering if God has abandoned us.


Personal time with the Lord is essential. Labor is necessary, but times of personal adoration and corporate worship (where we receive instead of giving) are indispensable. The Lord is not only worthy of our praise, He refreshes us when we take time to, "be still and know that He is God" (Psalm. 46:10). It feeds our soul and fills our well.

What Martha sought to offer Jesus at that time was good. What Mary did offer Jesus was better. "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven" (Ecclesiastes 3:1), but the one activity that can never be neglected for long (without great negative consequence to the health our souls) is the activity of being still and adoring the LORD - the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

We Need to Make Time to Love the Lord Who So Loves Us, Pastor Jeff

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Thoughts From Horatius Bonar

Dear Friends, If you are like me, you may have had a bad experience in the past with churches that stressed “holiness.” Not because churches shouldn’t, but because the focus was placed on outward conformity to externalisms, or a prescribed set of moralism’s that sucked the atmosphere of grace out of the church. In fact, the more effort-based versions of “holiness” are stressed, the more grace disappears – and the vacuum left in its wake is filled with even more rigid standards of morality and law-based duties – driving all who truly struggle with sin into hiding or pretending. And of all the books I have ever read on holiness (or godliness) none (in my opinion) hold a candle to “God’s Way of Holiness” by the Scottish minister Horatius Bonar (1808-1889). A book I have given to numerous people to read. If you were one who was turned off, or wounded, by a form of holiness based on what Bonar calls, “constrained externalism” or self-effort, I offer you this selection as a taste of w...
Post a Comment
Read more

More Christian Quotes

Dear Friends, Everyone (I assume) has a “favorite” Christian quote. Over the years I have collected and memorized many! So, today, I simply typed in my search engine “Favorite Christian Quotes” to see which one’s other people liked best and share them with you – assuming, of course, that if they spoke to others they might also speak to you. If you have one that you found extremely helpful, and is not included here, I would like to know what it is, and ask that you might take a moment at the end to pass it along to me. Thanks! Enjoy. “Please do not feel you have the right to judge me simply because I sin differently than you.” Anonymous “The two most important days of your life are the day you were born and the day you discover why.” Mark Twain "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. “The proper understanding of everything in life begins with...
Post a Comment
Read more

Thoughts from John Powell

Dear Friends, Sometimes you come across a story that sticks with you. This particular true story was one I read in 1897 and still remember today. Therefore, I thought I would share it with you. It comes from a book entitled “He Touched Me” by John Powell. Powell was a professor and counsellor at Loyola University in Chicago, with degrees in Psychology, the Classics, and Theology, and at the time when the events of this story transpired he was going through some inner struggles himself – events he chronicles in another book, “Why Am I Afraid To Tell You Who I Am?” At that time a lady came to him for counselling – who in the end changed his outlook on counselling. This is her story, and one that changed him. Enjoy. “A neurotic friend was weaving in and out of my life a few years ago. Each time we met there was the same neurotic whine, the same indecision, the same egocentric focus that is born out of deeply embedded pain from past trauma. It became clear that after many counsellin...
Post a Comment
Read more