Worship before work

Jesus’ interaction with Mary and Martha teaches us a valuable lesson about putting God’s Word first in our lives. How many of us can identify with Martha? So much to do and so little time!

On this side of eternity, it seems like we will never be able to take a break from our busy lives. If it isn’t family activities, it is our job or personal schedules that always seem to take center stage. Even our work for the church can keep us busy with our various areas of service.  These are all tasks that need to be done, and they are not unimportant, but how often do we allow our responsibilities to keep us from sitting at our Savior’s feet and listening to him?

Who can blame Martha for wanting to have everything perfect for her Lord? Jesus didn’t scold her for this desire, but what good had her work accomplished?  Instead of feeling joy in serving her Lord, she became frustrated and angry because she wasn’t getting any help.

There is nothing wrong with wanting to be a faithful worker, parent, organizer, and church member. But if our service takes us away from God’s Word it isn’t benefiting us. It can actually do damage to our faith.

There is only one thing needful, and that is hearing and learning God’s Word.  God uses his Word to create faith and build us up in faith, which drives us to serve joyfully in our various vocations. What good is our service if we are not feeding our faith?  If we don’t feed ourselves food every day we will soon be too weak to take on the tasks that have been given to us.

The same is true when we fail to feed our faith with a steady diet of God’s Word.

Martha wanted to serve her Lord, and so do we, but if our service takes us away from what is truly needed we are only hurting ourselves. Let us feed on what is most needed every chance we get so that our service to God will be God-pleasing.