Faith in Action

The church we attend in Dearborn just began a church-wide study called Faith in Action.  The first week was this past Sunday and we had our first small group meeting on Sunday also.  This study has daily devotionals to use every day of the week to go along with the topic spoken about on Sundays.  Today I started those devotionals and wanted to share a bit from one of them with you.  This comes from a reprint of the Gospel of Luke from the Faith in Action Study Bible which comes along with the study material.

The author of this article talks about the similarities between the birth of Jesus when there was "no room in the inn" and the story of Martha and Mary, when Martha essentially had "no room" in her inn for Jesus.  It brings up the question of whether we have room in our "inn" or lives for Jesus.  The author speaks of this in the time of Advent, but I think it should be applied throughout the year.

"We try to build a 24/7 relationship with Christ with a miserly investment of one and a quarter hours of sitting at his feet on a Sunday morning.  The inn of our lives is too full for Jesus to find room.  Our frantic busyness pushes him away."

"This Advent, I have resolved to hold before me the image of sitting quietly at the feet of my Lord, just listening, learning, and waiting for directions.  Theoretically, as much as I know my heart, I want to do only what Christ wants me to do.  I don't want to attend one more meeting, give one more speech, organize one more urgent campaign, or write one more book unless my Lord wants me to."

"My desire is to change.  I hope I learn to pray as much as Christ wants me to pray.  ...  I don't pretend I can easily switch from imitating Martha to following Mary.  But I ask the Lord to change me."

"May it be true ... that there is less and less frenzied worry about making good things happen, and more and more sitting prayerfully, listening at Jesus' feet.  Lord, my longing is to have room in my heart for you."

I think God wanted me to read this today because I have been doing a lot of busy work lately to have something to do on my days off from work and school.  I pray that I can have the same resolve that this author has to listen, learn, and wait for directions from God instead of trying to fill my life with busy work.  I know that I definitely need to wait for directions right now especially.

I hope this gives you something to think about and ponder on with God this week.