Message by Larry Thacker Jr. from March 21, “Only One Thing Is Necessary”
This week I was praying, writing in my journal, looking for inspiration for the next message. I was thinking about the future. I was thanking the Lord for my job even as I complained about it. I started thinking about what I would do if things changed in the future. What if I don’t have that job? I say I’m thankful for it, yet the idea of losing it doesn’t exactly fill me with dread.
I sat there for a minute, then the story of Martha and Mary from Luke 10:38-42 came into my head. I started to write down my thanks for the idea for a message, but that it didn’t have much to do with what I was just praying about. Then it hit me. It has everything to do with it. The circumstances are different, but the message is the same. In that moment He might have said to me, “Larry, Larry, ‘you are worried and distracted by many things; but only one thing is necessary.”
Our lives are full of distractions. It’s not that they aren’t important. Jesus didn’t say that what Martha was doing didn’t need doing, though I wonder if she felt that way at the moment. The truth is, we wouldn’t function very well without the Marthas among us making sure everything gets done and practical needs are met. Martha was a faithful servant, and Jesus loved her as much as He did her sister Mary and brother Lazarus, whom he would later raise from the dead.
The question that came into my mind as i read this story was, “why did Luke, lead by the Holy Spirit, feel it important that we read about this incident. We have so little recorded of what Jesus said and did. Every detail has been given to us for at least one reason. I think there are several here, but to put it in a few words, it might be that we know more about who Jesus is and know that there is no better think than to be His disciple. Only one thing is necessary. Let us choose the good part.
