Bethany Smith July 19th 2015 ~ Being a Mary in a Martha World

I have been reading a book called A Woman Jesus can Teach by Alice Mathews. Among the characters in the book, there are two chapters on Mary and Martha. This reminded me of another book I have read (and I rarely read!) titled Being Mary in a Martha World. Both books caused me to think a lot about the way I am serving God. I am definitely a Martha. I love getting things done and have found myself ignoring the importance of being Mary and listening to God's direction for my life.At a recent staff meeting, Liz Pemberton shared a small way to be more in tune with God: take 5 minutes with God each day, just sitting there and listening to Him. While I recognise how good this idea is, I have not yet implemented it. At every quiet opportunity, a task will come to mind and I go ahead and do that. God has given me so many quiet opportunities in recent days that I've actually just had to reflect and pray and learn to listen!Have you ever thought about whether you are a Mary or Martha?The books emphasise that it is not wrong to serve like Martha did. Everybody has a part in God's body and what she did in Bethany is an essential part of being a host (Luke 10:38-42). What was wrong was her attitude; she complains about Mary who wasn't helping her, instead sitting by Jesus' feet. Martha put so much emphasis on being a good host that she forgot about Jesus. Oh, how easy it is to be a Martha - all the tangible things that need planning and doing, that show progress/completion.A constant reminder is needed to love God with our heart first of all and then go out and love others. Serving with others is always going to be hard as we are all different people with different personalities, opinions and roles in God's work. But how wonderful it would be if we each do our part without grumbling about others....Well, I can’t wait to hear what Pam, Malcolm and James are going to share about Queen Esther in the next sermon series and what we can learn from them. (I listen to them from the website once I upload them as podcasts.)Thank you for allowing me to share the ministries at St Philips with you.God bless,Bethany