THE MARTHA SPIRIT Are you working so hard for God  that you are too busy to hear His voice and to let Him fill your spirit with divine words? Men and women alike are rushing so much to try to accomplish the work that the Lord has called them that they can miss hearing the instructions. When you look at a map or a blueprint, do you decide on your own to go a different direction thinking that way looks better? Do  you decide you want to add to or take away from the blueprint

Dr. Vicki Reeves-Church President, Concepts of Freedom Ministries, Inc.  without checking with the architect? Of course not - you follow the route that was laid out  by the professional.

Luke 10:40-41  states, “But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to Him (Jesus), and said, Lord dost thou not care that my sister left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou are careful and troubled about many things:” Listen to the way Jesus spoke to Martha. I can just see Him shaking His head and sighing. I believe He was trying to tell her that she was a worrier and she was doing things that can wait. We all can easily pick up this spirit if we don’t give time to the Lord before going out into the world trying to do His work. We live at a fast pace, but even in Jesus’ time that spirit was there. I am not speaking of a demon spirit here, but it can turn into one if we do not allow the Lord to speak to us before we go. The enemy tries all tactics to turn us away from following closely to the steps of the Lord. We can assume that we are correct in our thinking to the point of feeling that we do not need that time with Him seeking His direction.  It is equally important that  we are able to do exactly the things the Lord instructs to do without first spending time on our knees. If we walk every moment in the Spirit, we can get things accomplished correctly each and every time. It is a wonderful feeling to “just know” that we are walking in the right direction. But before we can come to that place we must spend time with the Lord, then we can go through the day following His instructions and walking in the Spirit. We may have to pray and seek the Lord for a long time to really know what He is saying, but then we are able to face the day with confidence. If we walk in the Spirit, we will hear the voice of the Lord and know without fail the move to make. The Bible says to pray without ceasing. That does not mean that you have to constantly on our knees, because you would never get anything else done. We should hear that voice behind you telling us  saying “...This is the way, walk ye in it...” (Isaiah 30:21) Unfortunately, many Christians have this “Martha spirit.”  If we don’t take this time with the Lord, we will be troubled and worried. We will be living without the peace the Lord intends us to have. Christians have heart attacks, they are stressed, overworked, burned out and confused. Often the reason is that they do not take the time to let the Lord have total control of their lives. Worry is unbelief. Unbelief is lack of faith and if we do not have faith, we do not have the Lord. We can’t live a Christian life without faith. We will only have the form of godliness and we can’t stand when the enemy comes to attack. I suppose I have thought in the past that Martha was just trying to do a good job and serve Jesus and His disciples. I did not realize the danger she was in by not hearing the things Jesus was saying. John 11:5 says, “Now Jesus loved Martha, and her sister (Mary), and Lazarus (their  brother)”. Jesus loves all of us, as well, but if we do not heed to the words of the Lord, we will not live an effective and productive  Christian life.  Trying to live a Christian life without prayer will keep us from knowing His directions. We can’t get anywhere until we realize we must put the Lord first in our lives. We think we don’t have the time, because of this or that, but we can’t afford not to take the time. I can tell you this, if we take the time, we will have more time. You may think that doesn’t make sense, but if we spend time with the Lord, he will give us more time. Trying to work for the Lord without talking with Him is a waste of time. We will make so many mistakes that we will spend much time fixing the mistakes, if they can be fixed. Most of the time, we can’t repair damage done to a soul who needs the Lord. I charge you today to make a new commitment - check yourself to see if you have been taken in with the Martha spirit. Are you too busy in your ministry to spend quality time with Him? Do you get so busy doing God’s things that you don’t have time for Him?

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