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.
Psalm 46:10 speaks directly to that guilt. "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." The command to be still is not a soft suggestion. It is a word that in the Hebrew means to release, to let go, to stop striving. God is saying, stop trying to carry what only I am built to carry. Stop trying to produce what only I produce. Be still and let me be God.
I want to introduce you to a practice for this Lenten season. I call it Sacred Idleness. It is not sleeping. It is not scrolling. It is sitting before God with nothing to produce and nowhere to arrive. It feels wasteful to the world. The world measures your worth by your output. But the Kingdom measures your depth by your roots. And roots grow in the quiet, not in the noise.
Listening is not the absence of worship. Listening is the highest form of worship. It says to God, "What you say matters more than what I do." That is the posture of Mary. That is the posture Jesus called the better choice.
3: PRIORITIZING HIS PRESENCE
Jesus said, "Few things are needed, or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:42, NIV)
I want you to sit with that phrase for a moment. "It will not be taken away from her." Think about what gets taken away. The dishes Martha washed that afternoon got dirty again the next morning. The meal she prepared was eaten and gone by evening. The floors she swept gathered dust by the end of the week. Everything Martha produced that day was temporary. Every result of our labor in the physical world is temporary. Emails pile back up. Laundry comes back. The inbox never stays at zero.
But Jesus said what Mary received, the Word she heard, the presence she sat in, the relationship she built, that will not be taken away. Hebrews 11:6 tells us, "And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him." God rewards the seeker. And what He gives to the seeker, no circumstance, no loss, no tragedy, no busyness, can strip away.
Psalm 27:4 is David's life ambition put into one sentence: "One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple." David was a warrior, a king, a shepherd, a poet. He had more on his to-do list than any of us. And his one ask, his singular ambition, was the presence of God.
Here is your practical challenge this week. Look at your to-do list. Find the one thing you will protect for God. Not the leftovers of your day. Not the five minutes before you fall asleep. The first, the freshest, the best. What is the "one thing" you will guard this week from the noise?
Prioritizing His presence does not mean neglecting your responsibilities. It means establishing the foundation that makes every responsibility meaningful. You work better, love better, serve better, and lead better when you work from a place of rest in Him, not toward a place of rest that never comes.
CONCLUSION
Martha got it wrong that afternoon, but Jesus did not give up on Martha. He called her by name, twice. "Martha, Martha." That double name in Scripture is always a word of love and tenderness. He saw her. He corrected her. And He kept her as His friend.
He sees you this morning. He sees the spinning plates. He sees the anxious mind. He sees the person who has been doing everything right and still feels empty at the center.
And He is saying your name this morning. Twice. With love.
The Lenten journey asks you to strip away until you find the one thing. Not more programs. Not more performance. Not more striving. One thing. His presence. His word. His face.
Mary chose it. David sought it. And today, you get to choose it too.
The good portion is waiting. Choose it.
Pray with me.
---------------------------------------
NOTE:
Your feedback matters!
If this message resonates with you, please take a moment to rate it on Sermon Central. Ratings help me know what's working and inspire me to keep creating fresh content.
Here's how to rate:
Look for the star rating system above the sermon text. Click the number of stars that reflects your experience (5 being the highest).
Thank you for your time and support!
In addition to ratings, feel free to leave a comment to share what impacted you or ask questions.
Blessings,
Pastor JM Raja Lawrence
Andaman & Nicobar Islands
email: lawrencejmr@gmail.com
Mobile: +91 9933250072
* If you need This Sermon in Tamil with my other personal Notes, please email me, and I will send it to you in a PDF Format. Thank You.
