Are You A Mary or A Martha?
We recently received a question about Mary and Martha, and since our last blog post was about being a grumbler, we thought this would be a great topic to do next. If you haven’t read our blog post about being a grumbler, you can find it here: http://www.119ministries.com/119-blog/a-womans-walk-are-you-a-grumbler/
Let's begin by looking at these verses:
Luke 10:38-42
Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.” But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”
In this passage Mary and Martha reacted to Yeshua being there in two very different ways.
- Martha was distracted with her preparations.
- Martha was worried and bothered by the fact that her sister left all the work to her.
- Martha grumbled to Yeshua.
- Mary was seated at Yeshua's feet focused on Him.
Wow, can you imagine welcoming Yeshua into your home?
Where would your focus be?
Would you be rushing around trying to prepare?
Do you think you would dare grumble to Him?
OR
Would you be able to drop everything and focus completely on Him?
When we look at this passage we see a woman who is preoccupied with the wrong things and who has a heart issue with her sister. She thinks Mary is lazy and leaving all the things that have to be done on her shoulders while Mary just sits there doing nothing. Meanwhile, Martha is preparing food for those that are there.
She had the living, breathing, walking Torah, our Messiah in her home and instead of being focused on the Word, she was focused on herself and all the things her poor self had to do...all by herself.
She was a grumbler.
And then we see Mary; her focus is on Yeshua, the Word. She isn't worried about food or anything else; she has her eyes on Him.
What a wonderful example of what our focus is to be on. In our last blog post, we talked about Philippians 4:8.
"Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable—if there is any virtue and if there is anything worthy of praise—dwell on these things."
Mary couldn’t have dwelled on anything more worthy than Yeshua.
As women, we can get bogged down by the “to dos” that we feel we must get done, often meaning that we are so busy that we go through our day or even our week without ever taking the time to focus on the Word. Today, we have become distracted by life, bothered by society and worried about everything else. We have become Marthas.
So how do we become a Mary?
Many will tell you that you must simplify your life, get rid of your junk, clean out your closets, and donate your kid’s toys. But will this make you a Mary?
While simplifying your life by scaling back on what dominates your time can certainly help, prioritizing can also be important.
Here are some questions to consider:
What are my top priorities?
Do I make YWHW a top priority in my daily life?
In what ways do I make Him a top priority in my daily life?
What changes can I make to improve?
If you listed some changes, we would like to challenge you to try and implement a couple of them and see what happens.
We hope this has blessed you,
Shalom