Visit at Martha's House, part 6: The One in Charge

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." (Luke 10:40 NASB)

When Jesus arrived, along with His disciples, Martha immediately welcomed Him into her home and went to work, making preparations for the meal and for His stay. Mary sat down at Jesus' feet and stayed there. The longer Martha worked, the more frustrated she became. She could be at Jesus' feet, too, if Mary would only help her, she must have thought. The more she fumed, the worse it got. 

Finally, Martha's irritation bubbled over into an outburst. "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me," she demanded. Martha had made a serious error in judgment. She assumed that Jesus would, of course, have the same priorities that she had, and that He would see her desire to work, as well as her assessment of the work that needed to be done, in the same way she saw them. We will soon see that nothing could have been farther than the truth. 

There was another little problem that Martha had, and it is one from which we also likely suffer. Martha assumed that, because it was "her" house, she was the one who would decide the agenda and the service that was done. It turned out that Martha was sadly mistaken. 

God is not in the business of asking us for advice. He has it all figured out, and has been doing a fine job of keeping the planets orbiting the sun without a bit of help from us. He has a plan, and it is better than ours. The thing we often forget is that God has a plan for everything, including what happens in our house, what acts of service we do, how we spend time with Him. (See Jeremiah 29:11 - "I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord...") 

We would do well to relinquish our need to control every situation of life and allow our Lord free reign. Let Him direct us in everything from the major decisions of life (job, spouse, location) to those decisions we might consider "ours" like where we spend our time, what we do in our free time, with whom we spend our time.

Martha wondered if Jesus cared. The truth was that He did, but the question He could well have asked was, "Doesn't Martha care about Me?" Our actions will demonstrate our love for our Lord. Let's be sure they say exactly what we mean for them to say. 

"Seek first His kingdom and His righteousness..." Matthew 6:33 NASB