Choosing the good portion

How do we focus on God during the day?  Why is it so easy to become distracted for days on end and not give any time or conversation to God? Are we Martha?

Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me.” But the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”  Luke 10:38-42

I admit I have trouble not letting my mind wonder onto the concerns of my life.  Even when those concerns are for friends and family, sometimes I don't communicate with God about them.  Life is so busy and there seems to be so much to worry and so much that needs to get done that we often stop our conversation with God and just keep moving.

When I was younger, I would even go weeks without really having a serious conversation with the Lord.  It can become a problem because the longer you go, the easier it becomes to ignore Him and do your own thing.  Weeks can turn into months and you may even justify not attending church.  And all the time still calling yourself a Christian, which you are, but not having a relationship with your savior makes your Christianity weak and doesn't give you any strength for today.

The problem is that the powers of darkness are always trying to draw us away from a close relationship with God until we just believe that we don't need it anymore.  When your Christianity is weak, you become a prime target.

If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it. Genesis 4:7

At every turn, we are being tempted and the longer we go without a strong bond with God, the easier it will be to fall into temptation and justify it in our minds and hearts.  The point is that if we become so anxious about our lives, or even so happy about how things are going that we forget to talk to God about it, we will begin to either think He doesn't care, or think that we have been successful on our own.

We will go about our daily business, putting ourselves in control, seating ourselves on the throne, instead of the one who gave His life for us.  We must always take ourselves out of the center and put Jesus there because He is the one who will lead and guide us, and make good out of bad, if we continually communicate and have a relationship with Him.

This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success.  Joshua 1:8

Just going to church on Sundays is not enough for a strong relationship.  It is curious that we don't rely on God more than we do when we know that He makes life more bearable and leads and guides us to what is good.  Even so, we go our own way and wonder why life is so hard.  We worry and cry and when things get really bad we may finally cry out to God and ask "where have you been?" when all the time we are the ones who have been gone.

Now, therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. You have sown much, and harvested little. You eat, but you never have enough; you drink, but you never have your fill. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages does so to put them into a bag with holes. “Thus says the Lord of hosts: Consider your ways. Go up to the hills and bring wood and build the house, that I may take pleasure in it and that I may be glorified, says the Lord. You looked for much, and behold, it came to little. And when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why? declares the Lord of hosts. Because of my house that lies in ruins, while each of you busies himself with his own house.  Haggai 1:5-9

We need to be able to be both Martha AND Mary, allowing God to speak to us and teach us, and doing what is necessary while being in constant contact with Him.  I find that instead of just thinking my own thoughts, it is better to have a conversation with God in my mind all the time.

So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. 1 Corinthians 10:31

Then when I am having those conversations and my own thoughts intrude, He can speak to me about what is really important, helping me to react reasonably to circumstances beyond my control and allowing Him to lead the way. This is not easy and I fail often.  As a born worrier, it is the only way for me to take myself off of the throne of my life and give control to the one who deserves it.

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Matthew 6:25-34