Distracted by things

Luke 10:38-42, “Now as they were traveling along, He entered a certain village, and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. And she has a sister called Mary, who moreover was listening to the Lord’s word, seated at His feet. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations and she came to Him and said “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me. “But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things, but only a few things are necessary, really only one, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” Does this strike a chord with you? Is your focus on pleasing the Lord with deeds? Our lives at time are consumed with tasks. We have to go to work, clean the house, mow the lawn, take our children to practices, fix dinner, feed the dog and cat. It is a never-ending list. We exhaust ourselves in both spirit and body. Martha was doing all the preparation, while Mary sat at Jesus’s feet to listen to His word. We become distracted by tasks. There is only 24 hours in a day. We may spend eight hours at work and on good nights eight hours sleeping. That leaves only eight hours to get our to-do list done, right? Maybe we snuck in an hour or so to read a devotional or the Bible and pray a quick prayer. The point of this scripture is prioritizing what is important to our soul. Martha was distracted from all her preparations and was upset Mary wasn’t helping. Jesus’s answer was first to tell Martha she was worried about so many things. He then told her that only one thing was necessary and that was spending time with Him and listening to His word. Only one thing is needed, spending time with Jesus and listening to His word. No wonder we become exhausted. We are filling our days without taking time for Jesus. The One who restores our soul. The One who teaches us our focus should be on Him. When we become worried about so many things, we can begin to grumble. We forget what is important. The distractions begin to take the place of spending time with Jesus. Our bodies can only go so long without food, water and sleep. Our souls cannot survive a single moment without Jesus. Our fleshly “to-do list” just gets longer when we don’t do what is necessary, which is spending time with Jesus. Stop with the preparations, they are a distraction. James 4:13-15 says, “Come now you who say, “today or tomorrow, we shall go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit. Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and also do this or that.” Spending time at the Lord’s feet should be at the top of our to do list each day. Know what God’s will is, then you can live and also do this or that. Don’t let life’s distractions, distract you from what is most important.