MARY HAS CHOSEN THAT GOOD PART

by Danna Shirley

For a long time now my life has been into much busyness. I am a person with a strong Martha nature; always in works mode, always living on performance and details.

But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him [Jesus] and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me."  And Jesus answered and said to her, "Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her."                                                                  (Luke 10:40-42 NKJV)

Knowing this, I was so dramatically touched by the Holy Spirit through the sermon preached that Sunday night (5/24/09). With it God literally changed my life. How can I now be satisfied as a Martha when I want to be a Mary and sit at the feet of Jesus!

The deliverer of the message was a young man, Jason Inman, who is over our Van Ministry. If you were to classify him, you might say he is low man on the totem pole of the church leadership, but thankfully, God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34). My following notes don’t do him justice:

Jason’s message:

WHY WE NEED GOD’S RAIN

To maintain our spiritual lives                           

To spring forth with the fruit of the Holy Spirit

Rain breaks forth life                                                        

To provoke spiritual growth

For abundance of peace, faith, favor                              

To soak in God’s presence

To be restored, refreshed, purified, cleansed . . .

We need to be SOAKED, SATURATED, and INVADED with God’s presence;

to be MARKED and IDENTIFIED as His child.

            These Showers of Power bring results to impact those we meet because of God’s presence in our lives.  Sometimes, unfortunately, we raise an umbrella to God’s rain and say, “I don’t have time today, Lord; I’m too busy, or I’m too tired, or I’m too whatever.  We raise our umbrellas of fear, pride, doubt, busyness, unforgiveness, etc.  We don’t let God’s rain wash over us to cleanse and refresh us.  We walk around dry, dirty, in a desert place.

            Jason concluded with this challenge:  Put your umbrellas down and soak up God’s rain!

The Spirit broke me and revealed that I may have thought I was doing ‘okay’ as a Martha but I had not chosen that good part that God desired for me. The message Sunday night started a chain reaction of prayer, coupled with tears and a tugging at my heart as I heard God’s ‘still, small voice’ begin to plant something new in my spirit. Jason laid a good foundation Sunday night; God built on it Monday morning in prayer time and again Tuesday morning when I attended our weekly prayer meeting at church. I’ve shed a lot of tears these last few days as I feel a calling to move out in a different direction. 

Thank you, Jason, for your obedience to preach the Word . . .