God's Wisdom In A Nutshell

Hello,

Today I would like to share a biblical story that teaches us that servanthood can be costly. It’s a story of two sisters.

Luke 10:38-42 New International Version (NIV)

At the Home of Martha and Mary
 As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said. 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!”

“Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “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.”

and these verses describe the annointing with perfume:

 Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus lived, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. Here a dinner was given in Jesus’ honor. Martha served, while Lazarus was among those reclining at the table with him. Then Mary took about a pint of pure nard, an expensive perfume; she poured it on Jesus’ feet and wiped his feet with her hair. And the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.”(John 12:1-3)

This Bible story describes a woman named Martha who was serving Jesus by preparing a meal for Him. Her sister Mary, was sitting at the feet of Jesus listening to His teachings and then annointing His feet with expensive perfume. Martha was trying to meet the physical needs of Jesus, Mary was trying to gain precious wisdom. Mary then poured out expensive perfume on Jesus’ feet to show Him that He was more valuable to her than the money she would’ve received had she sold the perfume.

We can learn much from these two sisters. Sometimes doing the work of God gets overwhelming and we put our Bible reading (akin to listening to Jesus)on the back burner. This story illustrates that learning from the Lord is the most important use of our time. Those not in the ministry are not excluded. We may get a nudge from the Lord to reduce our secular hours in order to free up time to learn deep Biblical Truths from the Lord which will be used to teach others. God knows how much income we have and if He decides less is enough, we need to obey the nudge.

“Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind.” (Ecclesiastes 4:6)

“Do not wear yourself out to get rich;
do not trust your own cleverness.
 Cast but a glance at riches, and they are gone,
for they will surely sprout wings
and fly off to the sky like an eagle.”

(Proverbs 23:4-6)

The Lord’s goal is to have obedient followers no matter what the cost- because He promised us that He will take care of our needs.(Matthew 6:25-27) Many times he takes us to very difficult situations before He steps in to give us the blessing He had in mind for us. This is a test to see if we have true faith that He will provide for us.

If we are to be followers of the teachings of Jesus we need to allow time everyday to reconnect to our true Source.  He will keep nudging us until we either heed His Word and bring every action and thought under the obedience of Him, or choose to go our own way. If we decide to take our life in our own hands- we are literally on our own. If we are living in any kind of sin or putting anything other than the Lord on the pedestal of our life, we can be assured that this is against the teachings in the Bible.  God is gracious and gives all of us blessings- however willful disobedience doesn’t sit well with the Lord. Loss of conditional blessings and loss of our true purpose in life are a few of the things we miss when we choose to ignore the Lord. God needs true followers to work as a conduit for His love and power.

Let’s ask the Holy Spirit to help us be more like Mary this week- learning from the Lord through daily Bible study- so that we can pour God’s love into this hurting world.

Stay healthy,

Lisa