Choosing the Good Portion

"As Jesus and his 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.'" - Luke 10:38-42, NLT

There it is. Right there in that simple, everyday scene; a home, two sisters, and Jesus sitting in the middle of it all. Two women who both loved the Lord. Two women with very different responses to His presence. And one gentle, loving word from the Savior that speaks just as clearly to us this morning as it did to Martha all those years ago.

Now, before we are too quick to point a finger at poor Martha, I want us to take an honest look in the mirror for just a moment.

Because most of us, if we are being truthful with ourselves, are a whole lot more like Martha than we care to admit.

Think about how your morning started today. Maybe the alarm went off and before your feet even hit the floor, your hand was already reaching for your phone. Notifications from last night waiting to be read. Emails that just could not wait. A mental checklist already running through your mind; school drop-off, the work meeting, that appointment you almost forgot. Before you have even said good morning to the Lord, the world has already said good morning to you, and loudly.

We live in a Martha world, friends. The noise is constant. The demands are real. The to-do lists are long. And there is nothing wrong with preparing a meal, going to work, or caring for your family. Martha's heart was in the right place; she loved Jesus. She genuinely wanted to honor Him. But somewhere between opening the front door and setting the table, she lost sight of why He had come in the first place. She was so busy doing things for Jesus that she missed simply being with Jesus.

And is that not exactly where so many of us find ourselves? We pray on the run. We read a quick verse between tasks. We mean to spend quiet time with the Lord, but the morning slips away and the day sweeps us right along with it.

Notice that Jesus called her name twice. "Martha, Martha." That tender repetition. He was not scolding her, He was calling her back. Back to what mattered most. Back to the one thing that was truly needed.

So what does Mary teach us? What does choosing the good portion look like for us, right here, right now?

It starts with a simple but very intentional decision: Jesus gets the first part of our day, not what is left over at the end of it.

Not the five minutes we scrape together after everything else is done. Not the hurried prayer whispered in the car on the way to work. But the first, the very best, moments of our morning, offered deliberately and lovingly to the Lord.

Before you check your phone. Before you turn on the news. Before the world starts calling your name, sit down at Jesus' feet. It does not have to be a long stretch of time. Even fifteen quiet minutes of Scripture reading and honest prayer can anchor your whole day in His presence.

Now notice the word Luke uses in this passage. Mary chose. She chose to sit at His feet. In that busy, bustling household with all the work to be done, Mary made a deliberate, conscious choice. She decided what was most important and she acted on it. And Jesus honored that choice, so much so that He said it would never be taken away from her.

Friends, we can make that same choice today. Not perfectly, some mornings will be harder than others, and grace covers those mornings too. But when we make time with Jesus a true priority, when we protect that quiet place at His feet, something shifts in us. We move through the day differently. We carry a peace that Martha's frantic preparations could never produce.

The good portion is available to every one of us this morning. It is not reserved for the spiritually elite or those with perfectly ordered lives. It is simply waiting for us to choose it.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, You are still coming to our homes this morning, to the places where we live, where we work, where we worry and rush and try so hard to hold everything together. And like Martha, we confess that we have sometimes been so busy in Your name that we forgot to simply be with You. Forgive us, Lord, for the mornings we reached for our phones before we reached for You. Forgive us for the prayers left unsaid and the quiet moments we let the noise steal away. We did not mean to crowd You out, Father. But we confess that too often, we did. Grow in us a Mary-heart, Lord. In a Martha world that never seems to slow down, teach us to be still. Teach us to choose Your feet over our to-do lists. Teach us to find in Your presence everything we truly need to face what this day holds. We surrender our busyness to You right now. We lay down our full schedules, our anxious thoughts, our scattered hearts, and we ask You to center every one of them in You. May we leave this place today not just as people who have heard Your Word, but as people who have truly sat at Your feet. Grow in us the discipline, the desire, and the devotion to choose the good portion, not just this morning, but every morning, as a habit of the heart that honors You. In the precious and worthy name of Jesus we pray, Amen.