Do the One Thing

Daily Reading: Acts 6

And the twelve summoned the full number of the disciples and said, “It is not right that we should give up preaching the word of God to serve tables.” (Acts 6.2)

Devotional Thought: The Apostles were facing another prison: the prison of busyness.  The Church was growing, and demands were increasing.  What had begun as a good thing – Christians laying the monetary gifts at the Apostles’ feet to distribute to the needy (Acts 4.34-35) – had become a burden on the Apostles.    The Twelve were personally hands-on in the task of getting food on the tables of the widows.  As the Church grew, the widow population grew, and the Apostles were being overwhelmed by the enormity of the responsibility.  And they were not even getting that job done right.  Some widows were being overlooked.  Understandable, unless it’s your grandmother!

The busyness of the Twelve demanded that they change how they were doing business. They called the Church together and solved the problem, assigning that task to others so that they could give their attention to “to prayer and to the ministry of the word” (v. 4).

Once, when Jesus was visiting in their home, Martha was busy serving Jesus in many ways.  Her sister Mary, however, was focused on just one thing: sitting at Jesus' feet.  Jesus said, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but one thing is necessary” (Luke 10.41-42).  When we try to do many things, we become “anxious and troubled.”  But, when we focus on fewer things, we can accomplish more with less stress and then we can do the one thing that is necessary: sitting at Jesus' feet.

What about you?  What is God calling you to do?  Do you leave time and space in your life that you can do it and sit at Jesus' feet?

Prayer: Lord, I could find hundreds of good things to do, but help me to focus on the one good thing that is needed.  Help me to serve where you send me.  In Jesus' name, amen.

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 73.1-11

1Truly God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.

2 But as for me, my feet had almost stumbled, my steps had nearly slipped.

3 For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked.

4 For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek.

5 They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind.

6 Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment.

7 Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies.

8 They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression.

9 They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth.

10 Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them. 

11 And they say, “How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High? ”