Winning Today: Being Intentional About God

You already know the deal by now if You’re a regular here, I try to be as transparent as possible. God doesn’t want a bunch of people pretending to be perfect. He wants people who love their neighbors enough to share their weak moments just like their highs, in hopes that it will help uplift and restore. Testimony is POWERFUL. Any who, at the very beginning of this year I really dealt with this thing I like to call Martha Syndrome.

I describe Martha Syndrome as the habit of worrying about our tasks so much that we spend countless hours doing so much, only to miss spending time with Jesus.

Well, where did I get that definition? Read Luke 10:38-42. Jesus traveled to a village and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. Martha’s sister was there too, and she sat at Jesus’ feet and listened to Him speak. Martha, on the other hand, was distracted by her tasks. When I first read that story I remember thinking about Martha missing Jesus because she was so concerned with her tasks—how crazy. Who would miss a chance to sit at Jesus’ feet? But then the Holy Spirit was like, “Hold up, that’s you too.” I paused for a second, thinking about my Martha Syndrome and how that short story in the Bible reflected my life, appropriately.

 How many of us have continuously missed our savior because we were too distracted by our to-do lists?

Let’s look at Luke 10:40-42:

⁴⁰But Martha was distracted by her many tasks, and she came up and asked, “Lord, don’t You care that my sister has left me to serve alone? So tell her to give me a hand.”

⁴¹The Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, ⁴²but one thing is necessary. Mary has made the right choice, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Martha was so sidetracked by her tasks (errands, jobs, assignments) that she asked to Jesus to tell her sister to help. Can you picture that? Mary doing the right thing and Martha so distraught about the wrong things that she vents to the Lord about the choice Mary made. Wow!

Jesus says that Martha’s “worried and upset about many things”(Luke 10:41).

Have you ever been Martha? How worried and upset have You been when You put temporary things before Jesus? When we have a ton of stuff on our to-do lists are we more concerned with the tasks, or our Lord? It reminds me of that saying, “know God, know peace. No God, no peace.” It’s powerful, but vague in a sense. It almost seems like if you know God you’ll have this all-the-time peace, but I believe knowing God is a reoccurring experience.

Everyday there’s something that God wants to share with us, but are we too distracted to listen?

Ok back to the scripture: Luke 10:42 says, “but one thing is necessary. Mary has made the right choice, and it will not be taken away from her.”

I love that: sitting at Jesus’ feet is the right choice, and it will not be taken away from You.

When I meditated on that scripture, God said:

“When You spend time with me it will never be taken away from You. The to-do list that You have will be completed better than You could’ve done it before because You made the right choice. And that time You spend in my presence will not be taken away from You; You’ll still have time to finish it all, as I lead You.”

God is so good. He doesn’t want us to worry about our job, our errands, or our assignments. He wants us to spend time with Him and listen to Him speak!

Winning each day means that we submit it to God first and carry out tasks as He leads us.

If you don’t know what God is telling you to do, then that’s even more of a reason to sit at His feet and get to know Him—His character; His voice; His love. In another post I briefly mentioned my bible study sisters. We have started an Intentional Challenge for two months. Basically, we’re making an intentional effort to stop worrying about the tasks and distractions of this world and sit before God and seek Him, everyday. I journal, pray, and spend time READING THE BIBLE. I’m on day 15—of course I keep track for accountability—and I can’t even explain how excited I am when I wake up to spend time with my Abba! It’s awesome to see how much I’ve grown over time. I tried Heather Lindsey’s Journal Challenge years ago and struggled to spend time with God for three consecutive days, but now I am so pumped to make it to two months!

Here’s a useful link for the Intentional Challenge: How to Spend Time with God

With that said, join us!

Use the contact page to send me your email address so we can keep each other accountable. We are walking together; You are not alone. I can’t wait to hear from you!