“Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.” But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” – Luke 10:38-42

Greetings dear friends of the King

A Worrying Woman/ Follower/Disciple

In Luke 10, we have the wonderful story of Mary and Martha and the Lord Jesus goes to their home. And in Luke 10:38 we find the Lord Jesus had been traveling along and he entered a certain village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She was glad the Lord was there. And she had a sister called Mary who had moreover, who was listening to the Lord’s word, seated at his feet. But Martha was “distracted”, and that word distracted can be translated worry. It’s the same Greek word. It comes from two words which mean “to divide” and “the mind”. So worry is to have the mind divided. Why is that so significant? Because the first and greatest commandment is to “Love the Lord your God with all your….mind.” When the mind is distracted it can not fulfil its highest cause which is devotion to God in love. Worry is often an acceptable sin in our lives and that of the church. It is neither seen as an a attack on the character of God or introverted faith- which is just a fancy way of saying -self reliance which is pride.

Worry not only is an attack on the character of God and that ultimately  He cannot be trusted, His promises are not valid, His grace is not sufficient. It is to make God out to be a liar. Martha was “distracted” she was “worried” She was worried concerning all her “preparations,” and she came up to Jesus and said, “Lord do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.”

THE FRUIT OF WORRY. Here we see the fruit of worry. What does worry look like? What does a worrying woman look like, or a worrying man?  Let us consider the fruit of worry.- The fruit of worry is…

1. TO DOUBT GOD’S CARE FOR YOU.

In verse 40. We see Martha was distracted with all her preparations, and she came up to Jesus and said, “Lord, don’t You care?”  The fruit of worry is firstly seen in this passage to Doubt the care of God for you. You question His commitment and loyalty, care and love for you as Martha did ! Consider the story of the disciples  who were in the boat, and a storm had come and the waves were picking up, and the winds howling. The Lord Jesus was asleep and they woke Him up. And they said,“Lord, don’t You care we are perishing?”  Like Martha the disciples displayed the fruit of worry also, which is to doubt God’s care for you in your circumstance. You begin to doubt – you begin to question His character  with questions to the mind like -does God care for you? “If God really cared for me He would not allow this to happen or in another sense He would allow it.”

2. SELF PITY.

Not only do you doubt God’s care for you, we find  in the same verse she came up to him and said, “Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone?” Self pity is another fruit of worrying. She “has left ME to do it all alone.”  Look at poor me, focusing on me. Look at me Lord, no one cares about me. No one is helping  poor me.  Though you may not verbalize it but, at times your agitation with others spills over to an attitude off, ” E-V-E-R-Y-O-N-E, STOP what you are doing, and F-O-C-U-S your attention on M-E!!! For there could be nothing you are doing which is more important than  M-E at this moment!!”

One of our children, when he was about 2-3 years old, when his will was crossed he would drop his lower lip and stick it out, pouting. We used to call it the “pookey lip” and you could land a 747 airplane on that lower lip. And so people are like that when they are full of worry and they doubt God’s care, and they are full of self-pity. They can’t get beyond their own end of their nose to see the needs of other people. It’s just poor me. And then what happens? Then some “encourager” comes to comfort them. You don’t comfort them in worry! I Thessalonians 5:14 to “admonish…warn” the unruly. Those who are out of line with Gods way. But it must be done with patience verse 14 also says and it must be done lovingly- 1 Cor 16:10 and it must be done with the purpose of lovingly restoring this dear one and with Gentleness- Gal 6:1. Worry is sin!  The fruit of worry leads to further sin against God and others . So we need to correct gently and be able to receives such gentle correction in our own lives. Why? Because worry is an attack on the character of God. The fruit of worry is to doubt God’s care. The fruit of worry is self-pity. The fruit of worry in the same passage is thirdly evidenced by being…

3. CRITICAL OF OTHERS.

“…Then tell HER to help me.”  Why? She’s doing nothing to aid Martha’s cause she feels.  Critical people, who look down and speak down to others as a result of a life of inordinate focus on themselves look at others with a censorious heart and say things like “Why can’t he ever do anything? Why can’t she ever change? Why do they always do it that way? You sang this song, you should have sung this song. You did this; you should have done that.” Some people you can’t win with. They are just critical people and at times it is the result of worry. And they are critical. Demeaning others!

4. DEMANDING OF THE LORD.

And then look at the next fruit. She is demanding. She not only doubts the Lord’s care, she’s not only full of self-pity, she’s not only critical of others, she’s demanding of the Lord. She says to the Lord in verse 40, “then tell her to help me.” She’s demanding of the Lord. Have you ever come in your prayer and demanded of the Lord?  “Lord, you need to do this.” Who do you think you are? Your breath is in your nostrils and you address the Holy One of Israel like that? Demanding. And let me tell you this. Not only do you demand of the Lord, and not only do you demean others, and doubt God’s care; you begin to drive others. You begin to push others. Why? Because they are not meeting your expectations, and that’s the bottom-line. They’ are not doing what you Want them to do!. They are not living up to My expectations. You demand and get frustrated and demand because you are presently focusing on you rather than pleasing God and serving Him and living to prefer others as He has instructed you to Phil 2:2-5; Rom 15:1-3. So you Demand of the Lord to “fix” it to do what you want and change others so that they will get with your program just like dear Martha.

But the Lord doesn’t tolerate that foolishness in my life, or in your life, or in Martha’s life. The Problem is not Mary, the Problem is not the Lord the problem is revealed as Jesus speaks to the source of the problem when He lovingly says, “Martha, Martha you are anxious about many things…” The Problem was MARTHA. her attitudes and words revealed a heart that was focused and centered on her self!

How easily we fuss and fume, pushing and demanding, demeaning and behaving ungodly blame-shifting, irritable. Refusing to see the problem is often OUR fault, our own doing and it is not others fault, its not the Lords fault, it is our expectations of others and our “rights” for others to serve us. The circumstance has just revealed what is in our own hearts. 1 Corinthians 11:31 is a wonderful verse which if we can by faith remember and practice should save us and others and the Lord a whole lot of pain.  where the principle is “Judge yourself rightly.” We must first take the “beam” out of our own eyes and deal with the sin in our own lives before we go “chopping off peoples heads” which is usually a fair indicator of who we are truly looking out for- and it is usually the opposite of loving God and Loving others.

5. DRIVING;

Another fruit of Worry is a tendency to D-R-I-V-E people when your agenda is not being met. Self Focus is revealed as the primary focus in times of stress and pressures when we are pushing to have our “agenda” achieved and accomplished.  The devil drives…the Lord leads His sheep  in paths of righteousness for His Names sake.{Psalm 23:}. And Doubting Gods Care, Self -Pity, Critical of other and Demanding and driving does not qualify as “paths of Righteousness for the Lord’s sake” now does it? drive them! When you find yourself driving and pushing people due to your worry you can be sure this is a result of a divided mind and displaced priorities. Life is about Pleasing God,{ 2 Cor 5:9 } preferring people {Phil 2:3-5}and not about our plans, agendas being fulfilled, to the point of driving and demeaning people as Martha did here.

MINISTRY

The Word in verse 40 translated “preparations” or as one translation says “serving”  can also be translated “Minister.”Ministry for the Master had displaced Ministry To the Master! And when we place ministry before Him we find ourselves like Martha… occupied with our plans and the suppose failures of others and we are quick to let everyone know. Although consider the Lord Jesus Commended Mary while  correcting and lovingly confronting Martha. They both saw the same situation. Martha  and the Lord Jesus, one saw through the lens of a jaundiced heart manifested in doubting the Lords care, self pitying, critical, demanding  the Lord obey her/ Through self centered eyes as a result of what was in her polluted heart, the other saw it from pure eyes and the Lord Jesus saw the heart!!

Listen to what Jesus says of Mary “…ONE THING is necessary, for Mary has CHOSEN the good part, which shall not be taken away from her”– v 42.  While Martha was taken up and distracted by a “meal” and ministering for the Master, Mary was taken up with giving attention TO the MASTER. This is not to say that a meal did not need to be made. Jesus  did not ask her to make a meal- Jesus did not correct her for the meal- It was her attitude that was the problem as it was Mary’s attitude that brought the praise.

People often say “I am a Martha”- as an excuse at timed for un Christlike behavior and that somehow that is how they are “wired” but living so is a choice just as living as Mary is a choice too.

Perhaps as you take inventory today as I must. Ask yourself in your service for the LORD JESUS, be it as a mom taking care of little children or teens, or a husband or dad, working away in a school, church, factory floor, or a college or high school student, in the name of “serving the Lord” are you doubtful of His care for you? Are you taken up with Self -Pity? Are you Are you critical of others? Are you Demanding of the Lord?

It may be time to confront yourself and confess your sin of worry and repent for the Lords sake and the sake of those who are round you who may have suffered enough through your anxiety. On a closing note in Luke 12 Jesus mentions three things that hinder us from seeking the Kingdom of God as the PRIORITY in our loves. Those three are Greed, Fear and Worry. They all focus away from the Kingdom to self. Lord help us all to recognize the fiery attacks to our minds of the evil one in attempting to turn us away from devotion to the Lord in love lest we too continue in living worry filled lives, doubting His care, Self pity, Critical of others and Demanding of the Lord and driving His people. In Hope for your own heart and mine, let us close with the words of the Lord Jesus- who loves you and who Does care for you from Matthew 6:25-33- Take heart , receive comfort and be confident in the care of your Lord Jesus and heavenly FATHER.

“Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.-{Luke 12:22-31}.

” The word, “But,” can be “Rather,” Rather, than be PREOCCUPIED with these things CHOOSE to BE PREOCCUPIED WITH YOUR KING AND HIS KINGDOM!