A Prayer for Single-Hearted Focus in a Busy Season - Your Daily Prayer - October 2
A Prayer for Single-Hearted Focus in a Busy Season
By Rachel Wojo
Bible Reading
"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." Luke 10:41-42
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This past Thursday night, I stood in front of a room full of women and reminded everyone: we’ve been given two commands. It’s easy to complicate life with our schedules, but truly everything in our faith walk hangs on two simple tasks: love God and love one another. I felt the weight of the words in my own heart.
Then, on Sunday morning, I sat in my home church, and my pastor opened the message with a single question. “Who is my neighbor?”
It was one of those “Ok, Lord. I hear you” moments. God had taken my own words on Thursday and passed them to me again on Sunday through someone else’s voice. When He repeats Himself through the messages in my life, I’ve learned to pay attention. Maybe you too?
The challenge is straightforward. Remember people over projects.
It’s easy to live in a state that makes the enemy happy. We don’t have to be in open rebellion to keep him content. Distracted and scattered is enough to make his job easy. Because he doesn’t have to defeat someone who loves God and loves His people in totality. He just has to keep us too busy to do those two things. Corrie Ten Boom says it this way, “If the devil can’t make you bad, he’ll make you busy.”
Busyness in the Bible leads me to Martha.
We tend to be pretty hard on her, but I understand her dilemma. She wasn’t stirring up evil. No, she was serving. She was working. If no one else was going to be a responsible adult in the room, she was. I mean, Jesus was visiting; shouldn’t everything be perfect?
But if we look at what Jesus says to her, He’s not scolding her for doing the work. He calls out the real problem underneath it: “You are worried and upset about many things.”
He doesn’t tell her that she’s lazy or doesn’t care. No, just the opposite. She’s carrying so many good things that she’s lost sight of the most important thing. Jesus doesn’t ask her to bulk up her to-do list or find another productivity app. He reminds her that only one thing is needed.
Mary had chosen that one thing. She was sitting with Jesus, single-hearted, present in His presence. Jesus said that what Mary had chosen would never be taken from her. All the things Martha was trying to accomplish? They would be lost. The one thing Mary chose could not be.
Can I encourage your heart today that I don’t think the answer to a busy season is necessarily a less busy season? Some seasons are simply fuller than others. But the answer to a busy season is a protected heart in the middle of it. It’s deciding, before the day scatters me, that many things will not be allowed to crowd out the one thing.
We get to choose the direction in which we turn our hearts. Let’s do everything we do today in love. May love be poured out from the God we serve, and love be poured into the people right in front of us today.
Pray with me?
Let's Pray
Heavenly Father,
It’s a busy and noisy season. I need You to do what I can’t do on my own. Quiet my heart to focus on You. Gather up the scattered pieces of my attention and pull them back to You.
I’ve let many things crowd out the one thing. I don’t want to be too busy to sit at Your feet. I don’t want to treat people like interruptions when people are the point.
Lord, guard my heart today. When I’m pulled in a million directions, remind me that only one thing is needed. Let everything I do today, every task, every conversation, every ordinary moment, be done in love.
In Jesus' name,
Amen.
Share your reflections on today’s devotional in the Your Daily Prayer discussion on the Crosswalk Forum.
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If you're still praying and starting to wonder if it's working, I wrote Praying Through Life's Battles: 90 Days to Strengthen Your Faith for you. You can order it now at battleprayers.com. Until next time, remember, God sees you, hears you, and He knows your needs.
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