As Jesus and His disciples were on their way to Jerusalem, they stopped by a village, and a woman named Martha invited them into her home. Martha became distracted with making a big dinner, while her sister, Mary, was with Jesus, sitting at His feet as He taught them. Martha told Jesus that she felt like it was unfair that she was the one who was doing all the work and for Him to tell Mary to go help her. However, instead of sending Mary to go help her, He told her that Mary had discovered the one thing to truly be concerned about, and that Martha was worrying about too many things. He told her that what Mary had discovered would not be taken away from her.

Sometimes, we act like Mary, and other times, we may act like Martha. With everything that goes on in our lives, it is understandable to act like Martha mostly, but our goal should be Mary. Like Martha, we get so carried away with our long to-do lists and daily lives, that we lose focus of the one thing that we should be focusing on, Jesus. In 1 Peter 5:7, we read to give all of our worries and cares to God because He cares about us. If we lived in a perfect world, we would not be worrying about lots of things; but since we don’t live in a perfect world, it gets hard to keep our eyes fixed on the Lord. A good way to refocus our minds on Him is to put a daily reminder in our phones for us to pray or to practice gratitude. We could even schedule a time each day to spend time with God if we struggle to include Him in everything that happens. There is always time for God, even when we don’t realize it. God wants to spend time with us and wants us to pick up our cross daily to follow Him (Luke 9:23).

Suggested prayer: Lord, thank you for always thinking about me even when I don’t think about You. Please remind me of Your goodness and help me to surrender myself and my life to You. God, help me to turn my focus towards You, and for me to keep it there. In the name of Jesus I pray, Amen.

1.    Luke 10:41-42.

Today’s Encounter was written by: Gianna B.