Choosing The Good Portion (Luke 10:38-42) Series

Choosing the Good Portion

MORNING LENT PRAYER DAY 6

INTRODUCTION

Church, I want you to take a breath this morning. Just breathe. Before you check your phone, before you run through your to-do list, before the noise of the day crowds in, I want you to stop and breathe.

Because the Word of God today is not for the lazy. It is for the exhausted. It is for the person who has been doing everything right and still feels like something is terribly wrong. It is for the believer who has been busy for God and has somehow lost God in all the busyness.

Jesus walked into a home in Bethany one afternoon, and what He found there is a picture of the Church in the twenty-first century. Two sisters. Two choices. Two very different results. And one gentle, piercing correction from the Son of God that still echoes through time and lands right in the middle of our lives today.

He said, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed, or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:41-42, NIV)

The Lenten season is not about adding more to your plate. It is about stripping down until you find the one thing that was always supposed to be at the center. This morning we are going to find that one thing together.

1: STILLING OUR ANXIOUS MINDS

Luke 10:40 says, "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!'"

I need you to see Martha clearly this morning. She is not a villain. Jesus loved Martha. John 11:5 tells us plainly that Jesus loved Martha, and her sister, and Lazarus. So we are not here to bury Martha. We are here to learn from her.

Martha was serving. She was hosting the Lord of glory in her home. She was doing kingdom work. But the Greek word translated "distracted" in that verse is the word perispao, and it means to be pulled apart. To be dragged in multiple directions at once. Martha was not simply busy. She was being torn in two.

Sound familiar? You are not just multitasking. You are being pulled apart. Your attention is in the kitchen and in the living room and in next Tuesday and in last year all at the same time, and you are fraying at the edges and wondering why you feel so thin.

Now watch what anxiety does to a person. It does not stay quiet. Martha's anxiety turned into an accusation. She walked up to Jesus and said, "Lord, don't you care?" Three words that reveal exactly what distraction does to our theology. It warps it. An anxious mind does not just affect your schedule. It affects your view of God's character. It makes a loving Father look indifferent. It makes a present Savior look absent. It makes the God who fed five thousand look like He has forgotten about you.

Philippians 4:6 gives us the prescription: "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God."

The correction for anxiety is not a better calendar. It is prayer with thanksgiving. It is choosing to trust God's heart before you understand God's plan. Stilling your anxious mind begins the moment you decide that God's character is not on trial, no matter what your circumstances look like.

During this season of Lent, I want to challenge you to catch yourself the moment you begin to accuse God in your heart. The moment you think, "Does He even see me?" Stop. Go to prayer. Present your request with thanksgiving and trust the heart of the One who loved you enough to die for you.

2: SITTING AT THE FEET OF JESUS

Luke 10:39 says, "She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said."

In the first century, to sit at a rabbi's feet was not casual. It was not relaxed. It was not simply hanging around. It was the formal posture of a disciple. It was the physical declaration that said, "I am a learner. I am committed to what this teacher has to say. I place myself under the authority of this word." When Mary sat at Jesus' feet, she was not being lazy while her sister worked. She was making the boldest theological statement in the room.

We have been taught in the Church, often without meaning to, that doing is more valuable than being. We feel productive when we serve on the worship team, when we chair the committee, when we volunteer at the food bank. And all of those things are good. But we feel vaguely guilty when we sit still. We feel like we are wasting time. We feel like we are falling behind.