Sitting still in His presence…“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 the work by 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, and it will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:38-40)
Too busy for God
If there is one thing we love doing sometimes, it is being busy for God – especially when we desire Him so much. We believe that being busy for God would make us experience Him more. In the process of being busy trying to experience Him, we may eventually learn new things about ourselves, God, and our relationship with Him. But there are seasons in our journey with God when He demands we be still, sit at His feet and listen. This is the time we learn even more than we believe we might learn trying to be busy for Him.
While trying to please God through our works, we are likely to fall into the trap of pleasing our own desires instead of His desires. We may desire to help Him with His business. Meanwhile, He wants to solve our business. We may believe we are doing the right thing because we are engaged in His business. However, when His business becomes our business, we are bound to be distracted and to fail because we can easily get overwhelmed with our own worries and perhaps with the limits set by the world.
Be still and sit at His feet
Christ says we should be still and sit at His feet. This means we should come into His presence with all we have in mind. We can even come into His presence with the desire to do His business. However, He does not want us to do His will without Him being aware of it. He knows best how to fulfill His own will. His own business. Therefore, we must first be in His presence to truly know His will.
In His presence, He reveals His strategies to us. God does not only give us an idea, His will, or a project but He instructs us on how to carry it out. We cannot fulfill God’s will in our own way. However strategic we make believe we are, God simply has His own way of doing things. His yoke is light and not complicated. In fact, Christ reveals one thing we rarely pay attention to, “you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one.” Christ tells us, we do not need to do much to do business with Him. All we need is one thing. Sitting in His presence and listening to what He wants to tell us.
His Kingdom revealed in His presence
Sure, we want to do so much on earth in His name. Sure, we wish His Kingdom to come as it is in Heaven. But His Kingdom cannot come if we are so business that we even forget His Kingdom is already on earth. We must dwell in His presence to learn more from Him.
Then, we also have this urge to tell the world about His wonderful Kingdom and how accepting Christ can liberate us all. All these are wonderful and godly desires, Christ is ready to reveal to us through His presence how we can perfectly go out there and tell the world about His great deeds. We first have to experience Him inwardly to share His deeds outwardly.
One thing I want to leave us with: In His presence, He shows us many ways to do business with Him. But we first have to sit in His presence.
