Read the following story very carefully. Pay particular attention to my emphasis in the verses.
Luke 10:38-40 KJV
[38] Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. [39] And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word. [40] But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.
Note that quiet underlined phrase in the KJV version of the story: ‘which also sat at Jesus feet’. Especially the word ‘also’.
When you ponder the the entire story in the light of the highlighted phrases, you get the sense that Martha was initially sitting at the feet of Jesus with Mary.
Here’s my personal reconstruction of the story:
- Martha —a forceful domineering type character —received Jesus into her house.
- She sat at His feet and started to listen to Him
- The forceful controlling person that she is, she made Mary join her. Both sisters now sat at Jesus’ feet listening to Him.
- But then Martha got distracted, and expected Mary to follow suit as well.
- This time, however, Mary made a choice to stay put at Jesus feet.
- Martha got offended and attacked Jesus.
- Mary, however, ignored her and let Jesus deal with the matter.
Martha represents those children of God that succumb to distractions. They allow the things that have to be done to get to them and break their focus. Unknown to this group, Satan is using the challenges of daily living to distract, deceive, discourage, defeat and destroy them.
On the other hand, Mary represents the Blissful People. In reality, she faced an even greater force of distraction than Martha. Martha was distracted by the things that had to be done. Mary, however, was being pressured by her forceful and controlling sister. Nevertheless, she prevailed and maintained her focus.
She was radically focused on the Lord!
I urge all Blissful People everywhere to walk in the radical focus of Mary—commit to a radical focus on the Holy Spirit.
But, beware of the Marthas in the Kingdom. Its very important to note that distracted children of God become distractions themselves. Beware of such people. Pray for them, but keep your distance. Otherwise they’ll corrupt you and drag you into their carnality.
I’m not worried about the people of the world one bit. I’m more wary of God’s people who have become distracted by worldly values. Because they become powerful agents of distractions. And if you’re not careful, they’ll succeed where Satan has failed, and drag you into the rat race.
Luke 10:42 NIV
… Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Like Mary, Blissfuls must make a firm choice everyday to stay put at the Lord’s Feet. Choose daily to radically focus on the Lord, in spite of all that has to be done; in spite the Marthas in Kingdom.