Only One Thing Is Needful

My title comes from the account in Luke 10:38-42 where Yeshua and His disciples entered the village where Mary and Martha lived. Martha welcomes Him into her home and is busy with much preparation and serving of food, while Mary sits at the feet of Yeshua, listening and learning as He shares. Martha gets frustrated and approaches Yeshua, attempting to get Him to tell Mary to help her with the serving, but instead Yeshua says: "Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her. "

Lately, Yeshua's words, "But one thing is needed," have echoed in my thoughts quite often. Like Martha, I have gotten distracted with much busy-ness. It's not that the things I've been busy with have been bad or worthless things, either. But even good, worthwhile things can be a distraction.

Our discipleship study yesterday included the passage from Luke 14:26-33. We were particularly challenged by verses 26-27: "If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple." Then in the discussion time, we were presented with this question: Assume for a moment that Yeshua is not instructing us to live a life of complete poverty and solitude, yet He does expect us to actually forsake things in order to be His disciples. What is the Spirit prompting you to abandon, turn your back upon, or hate in order to follow Him?

Keeping in mind that only one thing is needful and that is focusing on Yeshua, I have to say that He's been prompting me to eliminate the distractions from my daily schedule as much as I can. By eliminating things I've been busy with on-line, for instance, I should have more time to spend studying His Word, sharing the insights He's giving me, praying, and reading other books that I've been wanting to read which will encourage me as a follower of Yeshua.

And so that I will be reminded, I write it here.