Anxiouty and trouble are keeping you from God

Luk 10:38-42 ESV

(38)  Now as they went on their way, Jesus entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed him into her house.

(39)  And she had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet and listened to his teaching.

(40)  But Martha was distracted with much serving. And she went up to him and said, "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me."

(41)  But the Lord answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things,

(42)  but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her."

For a decade or two I have mainly heard this passage explained through the perception of what Mary and Martha were dong on the outside.  I do believe that we can understand many things through this view.  When we look into the text we see that Jesus addressed the internal condition more than the outward.  Martha was internally distracted.

As I have sought to be connected to the Lord I have found daily life to be a challenge to have union with God.  I had spent a few decades in the prayer room learning not to be distracted by worship, prayer, music and scripture.  I know some will think that statement strange, but good things often keep us from the reality of the Master.  I have pressed through some levels of victory over being distracted by what others hear me praying, how they might be interpreting my prayers and actions and my own thoughts on what others “might be thinking”.  What I learned in the prayer room was a great start. 

I don’t think that any of us should live a life of “just prayer”.  Loving God is the first command and we can spend our whole life in maturing in this greatest command.  The wisdom of God loving others is united with the second command which is also united with the “Great Commission”.  The Lord our God is one God and we often fail to see how integrated all things are, even heaven and earth.  Serving the poor is described in scripture as service to the Master.  Those who lend, do business, practice justice in economics are ministers for the Lord and ministering to people. 

This relates to the passage above in the context of service and life.  Right now “harp and bowl” intercession is one form of prayer in the world that is trending.  While in most places this form of prayer is advocated as a call to intimacy with God, it is also the most labor intensive form of prayer I know of (I can think of 20 off the top of my head).  Often on the local level at least three or four people are working hard so that one person can sit at the feet of the Lord.  This “labor” to “rest” ratio does not only include the sound, stage, video, musicians and singers in a given meeting but also those who work to pay for the space, equipment, overhead and support of that ministry.  If we do not rightly understand God then we are going to use the lives of thousands of people to build a handful who succeed at fellowship with God.  Failure to know the ways of the Lord will lead us to a religious society where many labor to support a few “elite”.  A study of history will also help us not repeat numerous mistakes and victories endured by our two thousand year prayer movement history.

My goal in writing this is not to offend but to awaken all those in the supporting cast role that union with God is possible in daily life.  For most of mankind’s history subsistence living was that way of life.  Abraham, the great father of the faith was subsistence liver.  This lifestyle is very labor intensive and little free time exists.  It is enough to actually practice a Sabbath day of rest and if we can do that we have all the free time we need to live lives full of the presence of the Lord.  While time is a factor, it is not the most critical factor.

Being distracted from the Lord is the most foundational factor.  The two most basic and powerful of these is anxiety (fear issues) and being troubled (judgments).   Just as a person who sits at the feet of Jesus must overcome distractions, so must the people who desire to walk with Jesus in daily life.  We do not serve others or the Lord by promoting a false perception that location validates reality.  I have met numerous people in the prayer movement to whom the prayer movement is a great distraction to the Lord.  Just as a person must learn to have fellowship with God at work, at home and in seasons of entertainment.  We must learn to commune with God in our religious meetings. 

There are numerous books on overcoming fear and on dealing with our thought life.  While these have many insights, we need to press ourselves to apply these numerous truths in ways that increase our dependence on God.  Apart from God we can do nothing, this includes fellowship with Him.  Our effort can be a distraction that causes us to judge and be critical of others, see Martha above.  Our internal thoughts about what “we are doing” and “what others ought to be doing” are also issues that need to be overcome through confrontation and repentance. 

I am going to stop for now by offering the following passage.  Below is a passage on communion with the Lord.  You can meditate on this passage and gain insight by looking at the meaning of the words first through their natural meaning and later through their spiritual imagery.  Food can be our meals and it can be our spiritual nourishment.  Clothing can be our garments and it can be our spiritual covering. 

The goal is not to learn more.  The goal is to live a life more and more in fellowship with God.  This will happen as you trust more in the Lord to get you there than you trust in your self.  You can wait on the Lord by sitting or serving.  You just can't wait on the Lord while being anxious or troubled regardless of your posture or function.

Mat 6:25-34 ESV

(25)  "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?

(26)  Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

(27)  And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

(28)  And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin,

(29)  yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.

(30)  But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

(31)  Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'

(32)  For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.

(33)  But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

(34)  "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.