Christian Living

PRIORITIZE

by Ramona Cook 
07/04/22
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Prioritize: Matthew 10: 38-42

In American Culture we are taught that wise living requires that we prioritize our life’s activities. Otherwise we float between spur of the moment ideas, and productiveness is then unrealized.

Jesus dealt with this “first listed priority” when He spoke to Martha on the day that He was teaching in their home. We assume, but should not, that only Jesus, Mary, and Martha were there; there may have been many people present that day.

 Martha was being a responsible hostess she was preparing the meal for them all to enjoy. She was absolutely engaged in a service to The Master and everyone present, so why did He seem to rebuke her?

I admit, and Jesus knows it, to misunderstanding what His message to Martha and to me really was; I have even said to Jesus, “Now You know You enjoyed the food that day!”

Jesus was NOT saying that Mary should not assist in the meal preparation, He was addressing Priorities. God’s Word IS Living Water, The Bread of Life, and it is Breathed by God for us to absorb, Jesus called it real food and the “essential thing.”

It was not that our physical meals are not important. It was not that Mary, sitting out the kitchen work was okay, it WAS that nothing supercedes the importance of being engaged FIRST in the Word, allowing IT to become a permanent part of our lives before we care about productivity.

While reading this text for how many times I cannot count, I finally GOT what Jesus was communicating. I heard this, “He might could have said, “Martha, it would have been alright for us to have a peanut butter sandwich today so that you could be involved in the really important thing which is God’s Word.”

Martha was otherwise involved in a good work that had deprived her of the best benefits for her life. Do you also have this type of faulty Priority List?

Ramona Cook