Doing For Jesus VS. Being With Jesus

Have you ever had those moments where you realize you’re seeing the same Bible verses or story everywhere?

Someone posts if on Facebook.

Your pastor uses it in his sermon on Sunday.

The book you’re reading uses this passage.

I’ve learned that those moments are never coincidence.  That’s the Holy Spirit trying to get our attention!  And those are the three ways He used to get my attention this last week.

The story the Holy Spirit was drawing my attention to is the story of Mary and Martha in Luke 10:38-42:

“As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.”

But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details!  There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”

My friends, I am a Martha through-and-through.  I’m a doer.  I enjoy the sense of accomplishment when I have completed a difficult task.  I like checking things off my to-do list!

But sometimes doing is the enemy of being.

Martha placed the priority of what she was doing over being with Jesus. 

Think about that!  She was in the very presence of the Son of God, but what she was doing was more important to her than being with Him.

And let’s not forget that Martha was doing good things – what she was doing, she was doing for Jesus!  She was cleaning, cooking, preparing for Him!  She is doing what she’s doing unto the Lord. 

But Martha missed the most important thing: her doing was keeping her from being with Jesus.

Maybe you are like me:  we use what we do to give us a sense of worth or add to our personal value.  But Jesus wants me to understand my value by being with Him.  He loves me and gives me an identity that is not based on my doing. 

This being doesn’t come naturally to me.  It means I have to quiet my busy mind and my anxious heart.  I am learning to choose to lay aside my doing for the sake of being with my Jesus.  It is there that I find who I really am – not based on what I have done, but based on Who He is and Who He says I am.

Remember what Jesus said to Martha:

“My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details!  There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”

We find ourselves doing a lot of things.  But what would Jesus ask of us?  He wants to be with us – in intimate relationship that changes us from the inside out.  What we do can be taken away from us.  But what is formed in us by just being in His presence can never be taken away.

One of the most powerful books I have read on this topic is called “With” by Skye Jethani.  Please, if you get a chance – READ THIS BOOK!  It is life-altering in how we look at being with God.  In “With” it says,

“In other words, it is not our circumstances or behaviors or radical decision that give our lives meaning and hope, but our unity with God Himself.”

We somehow underestimate the power of being with Jesus.  I don’t want to blow past Jesus, just as Martha did – even when what I’m doing, I am doing for Him.  He wants to be with me.  And when I am being with Him. . .everything changes.  I change.  It’s about the being.