Day 26 – Issue 17

Be Still Know

Luke 10:39 NLT

‘Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught.’

Families easily create friction. Having expanded our household with my mum moving in, it’s amazing how many niggles arise. Mum tells me off for shouting at her when her hearing aids fail to pick up what I’m saying. I feel the irritation and criticism rising within me as Mum moves about the house anticipating that I’ll clear up behind her, while in truth she’s struggling with mobility and arthritis and has joined us with the express need for additional support.

Over the years, I have been equally irritated with God. It seems I’ve worked hard at my bit, obedience, faithful service and the like, yet I grow frustrated at the ways in which I feel let down by God. I can even seek to punish my Lord by ignoring him or deliberately behaving in ways designed to upset him. The same choices I can strangely make towards those I live alongside.

Here Mary makes a clear choice to sit at Jesus’ feet and attend to what he has to say. Fully aware of the domestic work Martha is busying herself with, and no doubt conscious of the way this might play out in her relationship with her sister, she still chooses this path. Indeed, it’s at times when I feel most frustrated with our living arrangements that I also most need to turn to God. Failure to take such a course of action will likely cause a flare-up in the home.

I acknowledge and live with the conflict between my spiritual ascent of the mountain and my descent back into the fray, sparked by my own lack of patience and reactive nature. Yet, God knows me, loves me and accepts me, hypocrite or not, and invites me to return to his feet.

QUESTION: How do you handle the conflict between your humanity and your attempts to approach and live for God?

PRAYER: Lord, it’s when I’m most busy that I need to turn to you. Help me do so today.