"Martha, Martha..." Part 11

"...Mary has chosen the better portion...

Undoubtedly, Mary was very much a person like us. She surely had all the many concerns filling her life as we tend to have fill ours. Business concerns, marriage concerns, children (young and old) concerns, health concerns, political concerns, community concerns, future concerns, money concerns, and so on. But, for us (unlike Mary in our story), these legitimate concerns frequently become obsessions that far outweigh all other matters, including our relationship and intimacy with God. Indeed, we see in Martha someone who is making a good concern (ministry and hospitality) into an obsession, and Martha gets lovingly rebuked by Jesus for allowing good concerns to overshadow and outweigh the amazing thing that is happening in her very own dining area.
Mary, on the other hand, is obsessed with Jesus and is able to put those many other concerns in their proper, secondary position.

There is a very big difference between a legitimate concern and a "better portion." Here is the point of today's blog: 
 * You can only obsess (=worship) over one thing at a time. Or, in other words, something

    will always take the place of "the better portion" in your own heart each and every 
    moment your alive.
 * To obsess (worship) over daily concerns (like Martha) is to choose NOT to obsess
   (worship) Jesus.  

 * To choose to obsess (worship) Jesus (like Mary) is to choose not to obsess (worship)
   daily concerns.

* "Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs..." (Jonah 2;8)

* "No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and Mammon." (Matthew 6;24)

So, who will you be like today? Martha, worshipping daily concerns (and ministry) and forsaking Jesus? Or, like Mary, worshipping Jesus and forsaking (putting in their proper place of secondary importance) your daily concerns? You cannot "serve", "cling", worship both!  CHOOSE!

"...Mary has chosen the better portion...."