One Thing (continued) home and told Him to sit. Then she made herself His hostess, trying to please Him with all that she could do to make Him feel at home. But she just couldn’t do it. She did not have the ability. Weary, exhausted, frustrat ed and perplexed she exclaims that she just can’t make it alone. If she is going to be able to achieve a measure of success in satisfying Christ, she de mands that she get the help of Mary. Here was another body, another head, two more legs, two more arms, two more eyes. She needed this if she was going to be able to do anything. Yet Christ said, “Martha, Martha thou art troubled about much serving.” Thou art careful and troubled about many things. What is needful is that instead of serving Me, permit Me to do that which I have come to do. “I have come that ye might have life, and that ye might have it more abundantly.” How is it with you? Have you ever experienced the one needful thing of seeking the satisfaction and sufficiency of the Saviour? That is what He wants us to do. He says, “My Father is the husbandman and I am the vine.” If we have a need, Christ will look after us. No branch can ever bear fruit of itself. It will just stick there in the vine. It can be a twisted, knarled, knotty, odd looking branch, with many weaknesses and many frailties, yet if it is in the vine it draws its life there from. As a result fruit comes forth. Don’t you be cumbered about much serving. Do that one needful thing. There is a great error in receiving Christ and then just sitting down and forgetting Him. But there is also an error in being too busy to rely upon the same powerful Lord who saved us. Christ dwells in you if you have, by faith, received Him as Saviour. You have Him in your life in all the full ness of the Godhead bodily. The Bible tells us that we are complete in Him. Have you ever entered into an experi ence of thanking God for completeness in Christ? Or do you come begging and looking for strength to enable you to do something for Him? That is not
the way of life. The way of life is to walk in the fullness of Christ under the control of the Spirit of God. If you have the Giver then you have all the gifts that are contained in the Giv er. He can be all that you need at any moment of the day. “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all OCCUPIED Martha in the kitchen, serving with her hands; Occupied for Jesus, with her pots and pans. Loving Him, yet fevered, burdened to the brim— Careful, troubled Martha, occupied for Him. Mary on the footstool, eyes upon her Lord; Occupied with Jesus, drinking in His word. This is the one thing needful, all else strangely dim: Loving, resting Mary, occupied with Him. So may we, like Mary, choose the better part: Resting in His presence — hands and feet and heart; Drinking in His wisdom, strengthened with His grace; Waiting for the summons, eyes upon His face. When it comes, we're ready, spirit, will, and nerve; Mary's heart to worship, Martha's hands to serve; This the rightful order, as our lamps we trim— Occupied with Jesus, then' occupied for Him! — Lois Reynolds Carpenter spiritual blessings an heavenly places in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3). Every bless ing that is in heaven is in Christ and Christ is in you. Then do that one needful thing. Begin to walk a life of faith, leaning upon Him, enjoying His life in you, instead of doing something for Him. Thank Jesus Christ for all that He is in you and walk according to His will. 30
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