ONE THING I SEEK

39  She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. ⁴⁰ But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!”

⁴¹ “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things,⁴² but few things are needed—or indeed only one.^[a] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”   (Luke 10:39)

Martha was distracted. Mary sat at Jesus feet. Both of these sisters loved the Lord intensely.  Both of these sisters wanted to pour out their love and adoration on Jesus.  

At times I am like Mary and at other times I receive the Lord`s word of correction like Martha.

(He corrects those He loves "because the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and he chastens everyone he accepts as his son." Hebrews 12:6)

I may hear the Holy Spirit within me say "Mona, Mona, you are concerned about many things.."

The Lord is calling us to seek Him.  To give Him all our concerns and worries. 

After I confess to the Lord my concerns, I   LET GO !

Yes, LET GO !

God, our Father who loves and cares for us wants us to sit at His feet, to enjoy His beautiful presence and to learn of Him.

Sometimes I may try to justify my concerns because they are for others, or for my church, or for my family.

No matter what it is,.. the Lord wants us to give it to Him.

In Philippians 4:6 the Lord commands us to "Be anxious for nothing.."  that is NO - THING. 

We are to give Him everything in prayer and with thanksgiving we receive His peace.

He is God and He is Good.  He takes our worries and cares and in return lavishes His peace upon us.

How beautiful and loving He is!

The "one thing" Jesus was referring to when He spoke to Martha is found in the following verse, and that is to seek Him and to dwell in His presence.

I am glad that Martha was still close enough to hear Jesus speak to her.

 4 One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek, inquire for, and [insistently] require: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord [in His presence] all the days of my life, to behold and gaze upon the beauty [the sweet attractiveness and the delightful loveliness] of the Lord and to meditate, consider, and inquire in His temple." (Psalm 27:4 AMP)

This morning I came across an article in the COMPASSION magazine.  I am touched, blessed, and know the truth behind these words.
I walked the red dusty roads of Kampala, Uganda and Kitale, Kenya witnessing the very lives that this woman speaks of.

Written by Ann Voskamp:

"When I sat under a tree in Africa for a Church`s Sunday School class sitting in the class with our sponsored child, Anna -- a class that had no million dollar roof, no walls, no chalkboard or crayons, papers, flash, glitz or gloss -- just one tree and one grinning Compassion teacher with a falling apart Bible -
When that teacher stood under that tree on a Sunday morning and told the kids, dressed up in not a whole lot more than tattered rags, "God lets us all give just like the widow`s offering," ..he was smiling like he swallowed the infamous original canary.  He couldn`t stop laughing giddily.
"You don`t have to wait to have more, you don`t have to wait to have much, you don`t have to wait at all."

And I`m looking into the eyes of all these African children, all these hungry, dancing eyes and the Compassion teacher`s literally dancing under the tree:  "You all get to give!"
It`s not just the rich who get to give -- it`s all those who give who get to be rich.

And I`m sitting under a tree in Africa with the richest in the world and it`s not Bill Gates and it`s not Warren Buffet and it`s not the family with 2 cars, a flat screen t.v. and one week in Disney.  It`s a bunch of kids in Africa in ripped shirts and torn shoes, who have no knives or forks and sleep on floors.

It`s only the people who give sacrificially who get to live richly."

Thank you Ann, for your words of hope...hope for the needy, the lost, the empty and the searching in our North American nations.