Choosing the Good Portion Series - Part 3
“She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet listening to what he said.” Luke 10:39
I recently had bloodwork done. Huge praise because this specific round of bloodwork showed that my markers were clear and I have no detectable thyroid cancer. While that sounds amazing (and it is), we’re more concerned about the parathyroid markers and levels which I will get in a few months after my CT. But I’ll take this as a win for now and praise the Lord!
But after I had my bloodwork, I caught myself praying, “I want your best for my life, Lord!”
Of course I want God’s best, but I so easily forget that God’s best is never pain free. I think we all forget that. When we pray for “God’s best”, we’re actually thinking God’s best will be the easier route, the most comfortable route. The route that has little to no difficulties. But life is rarely like that: easy, comfortable, without difficulty.
What if God’s best for your life is actually a hard road because in the end it brings Him the most glory and sanctifies you the most? Isn’t that what we want? Romans 8:28? So maybe our prayers should shift from, “Lord, I want your best for my life” to “Lord, do whatever in my life that brings You the most glory!”
That shift has helped me a lot lately because then when I do come up against something hard in my journey that was clearly defined by God, I don’t blame Him for it and second guess His “best” for my life. We need to instead always recognize that His plans are far better because He is with us, He has gone before us, and the Spirit is interceding for us. We can trust that when we pray for His will to be done in our lives, that He will lead, guide, and direct us and lavish us with all we need for what’s ahead when we submit to Him. The best route is, in fact, a life with Him.
But that’s not what I was going to talk about. That was more of a pep talk and reminder for myself :)
I wanted to write about sitting at the Lord’s feet today.
Mary, who sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he said.
The first thing I thought of when I read this verse was that Mary probably didn’t care about the noise around her because she was so focused on what was before her: Christ.
We know the grass is greener where we water it, especially spiritually. But are we modeling that in our own lives? Are we so focused on all of the activities our culture tells us to do that we’re neglecting the most important thing? What character traits do we need to be a Mary who sits at the Lord’s feet and listens to His words when the world around her is focused on the things of this world?
Anyone else have trouble sitting still, feeling compelled to do all the things? Do you care about all the noise around you? The posting and the scrolling and the keeping up with the Christian Kardashians, obsessing over church/national politics, or stuck in the cycle of burn out?
I think we often need a reminder to just sit with the Lord. I think we need to rest and take a break from the busy. I think we need to listen and not talk. I think we need to make sure we are clearly hearing His words and stop trying to get other people to listen to ours. I think we need to care less about a social media platform and minister to the people right in front of us: spouse, kids, friends, church community, neighbors.
If we just took care of what was right in front of us like Mary, we’d have a lot less problems. We’d be choosing the good portion. Humility…contentment...abiding…obedience…discipline….these are the marks of a true Christian. Will we walk in these? Pray for these? Help others live out these vital traits?
We have sitting to do, dear Christian. Let’s go back to the basics this week.
