Luke 10: 41 “Martha, Martha,” the Lord answered, “you are worried and upset about many things, 42 but few things are needed—or indeed only one.[a] Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.” (NIV)
I wonder how often we get so busy trying to do something for God that we miss an encounter with Him? It is clear to me that Satan uses busy-ness in my life to distract me from kingdom work and encounters with God. I wonder how much of the busy-work at church is also a distraction. We meet, we discuss, we make plans, we draft vision statements, we build budgets, we evaluate staff, we practice music, we buy equipment, and clean and maintain buildings. Like Martha's busy-work, this is all really important work. Yet, I wonder if we don't let these distractions become our focus; a very real distraction that is easier to occupy our time than time spent in true worship, study, prayer, devotion, and service to others.
Yesterday's sermon by Mike Sigler entitled "Unleashing the Power of Prayer" made three points. We unleash the power of prayer when we 1) make prayer a way of life - subjecting everything to prayer, not just things beyond our control like health and death; 2) we believe in its effectiveness - we pray expectantly and look for answers; and 3) when we take advantage of its availability - God is literally inside us and therefore is always available to talk, listen, guide, convict, console, and affirm. The last one, though by everyone's admission in Sunday School is the one where we fail. We fail to take advantage of the availability of prayer. It's not that we don't have time, we are undisciplined and too easily distracted by "important" things. Take time today to stop all your distractions and simply sit at the seat of the Master, listen to His teaching, then get up and DO WHAT HE SAYS!
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