Matthew 10 38 through 42. As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary who sat at the Lord's feet, listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked,

Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do all the work myself?

Tell her to help me.

Martha, Martha, the Lord answered,

you are worried and upset about many things,

but few things are needed, or indeed only one.

Mary has chosen what is better better and it will not be taken

away from her. What a powerful passage of scripture. When I read this passage, immediately what

jumps to my mind is this is the more you and I were made for because the world has a version of

more and God has a version of more.

You know, we read verses in scripture like Ephesians 320 that we were made for abundantly more,

that God has abundantly more for us or John 1010 that the thief comes to steal, kill,

and destroy, but he came to give us life and life abundantly,

that there is more in God's eyes, more for our relationships, more for our mind, more for our

soul, more for our heart, more for our purpose. But the world also has this pressuring contrast

of more, that we have to do more, that we have to be more, that there's this pressure,

this feeling of I can never do enough, I can never measure up in this striving and this

performance that leaves us exhausted. And I know for me, I have so often found myself as

Martha in this story.

But my hope and prayer is that you and I would be a merry heart in a Martha world, that

we would have a merry spirit in a Martha world, that in the midst of so much going on,

in the midst of the pressures, in the midst of the temptations, in the midst of being pulled

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