Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Jesus rebukes a Proverbs 31 woman who is busy doing God’s work. Is being busy for God what Jesus requires from your life, or have we been duped by the enemy to utter exhaustion by doing things that don’t matter?
In the Bible where Mary and Martha are mentioned, Martha is portrayed as the ideal Proverbs 31 woman. She is diligent and hard-working. She trusted God and served Him wholeheartedly. When her brother Lazarus died, Martha showed her trust in God by telling Jesus that her brother would not have died if He had been there. Martha was a godly woman, constantly responsible for her household.
Meanwhile Mary lazily sat at the feet of Jesus, having fun by soaking up all that Jesus had to say. She knew that she was being mean to her sister Martha. Her sister couldn’t possibly get everything done for dinner with all these guests without her help. But Mary loved Jesus so much, she couldn’t help herself. She found an irresistible urge to rest in His presence, even though she felt a bit guilty staying in a room full of men instead of being in the kitchen helping her sister.
Martha knew she was missing out on all the fun and also wanted desperately to be with Jesus. But she did the responsible thing and was rebuked for it. (Actually, she was rebuked for her anger and envy, both of which were caused by her desire to be with Christ.)
Dinner almost got burnt because of what Mary did. But apparently Jesus didn’t care about burnt food. Being obsessed about service to God might actually take your eyes off God and onto the service. And then suddenly you become weary and realize that you’ve exchanged intimacy with God for clocking in hard work for His service. Not to discount His service. You need to obey God’s call on your life. And doing things for God is not sin. However, we must prioritize and continually ask God what we should be doing with our time. Because resting in the presence of God is the “better part” of this life, and if we are not connected to God by yielding to His Spirit, our work will end up being worthless.
Oh if we could all just find the balance!
Yes, truth is the balance. What I wanted to express is that if we are busy trying to be the Proverbs 31 woman, we might miss sitting at the feet of Jesus, which is “the better part”. My husband said that if Mary was continuously sitting at Jesus’ feet day after day, He would have rebuked her to get up and get to work!
I really enjoyed reading this post… Thanks so much for that point out!! XOXO
I’m with Laughwithusblog. Finding the right balance is a continual challenge in our daily life. Great post! I thoroughly enjoyed reading this.
Have a nice day!
I never thought about it this way. But you’re right. It’s so easy to become distracted with the the busy work and not prioritize our time with God. I kinda needed to read this today. Thank you.