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Who are we serving - God or man?


 This morning the Lord has been challenging me and showing me and asking the question – “Why am I doing what I am doing?  Am I doing it for Jesus or for man?”

Over the past weekend I kept calling people ‘Mary’ and I clicked this morning what was going on, the Lord was reminding me to be a ‘Mary’ to sit at Jesus feet and so I looked up the story about Martha and Mary.  We all know the story but for me this morning as the Lord is saying to ‘prepare for expansion’ he is also saying in the preparation to keep sitting at his feet.  Luke 10:40  “But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. “  In this season where we need to make room for expansion, it is easy to get distracted with all the preparations that need to be made, easy to not sit and be with Jesus. 
Luke 10:38 – 41, 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.

The scripture above spoke to me personally as we are opening our home to the Lord and to the people he brings, how do we sit and listen to all that Jesus says and yet still get the preparations done?  I pondered this question and then the Lord reminded me once again of what happened last week.  People came and helped with the things that needed  to be done.  One woman turned up at my home and started to help clean when I had had no time for cleaning.  I didn’t need to ask her, she was prompted by the Lord to come and do it.  He reminded me that he will bring the people that will do the various things that need to be done.  We all have our part and we need to respond to the part that the Lord puts on our heart and do what he releases us to do.  But first we need to listen to him.  It was in listening to him that the woman responded and came and helped clean.  When we listen to him, when we sit at his feet, we hear what we need to do and we then need to trust him to do the rest.  We can only do what he gives us to do, and if we find ourselves rushing around then we are often doing things that he has not asked us to do.   

In my rushing around this morning and preparing my home, the Lord gently asked the question – ‘Sarah who are you serving, God or man.’  Are you serving the people more that I am bringing to your home than you are serving me.  He prompted me to go and pick some roses but at the same time someone came to our home.  I was tempted to go immediately to minister with the people but Jesus showed me not to and to go and pick the roses because actually Jesus was more important and I had felt him say to go and pick some roses, but because someone turned up I felt the need to go and be with them.  God is big enough to minister to the people on his own without me.  He doesn’t need me.  He can turn up in a cloud all on his own and bring what needs to be brought and so I took my time and went and picked the roses first and then God did what he wanted to do and it was so much better than if I had gone in rushing and not at peace.

God is sooo good in realigning our focus and shifting it back to where it should be.  And so I share this with you and hope it helps you to keep your focus where it also needs to be and ask that you would pray for me in the shifting of seasons and the preparations of expansion that I would take that time to just sit at Jesus feet and listen to him and trust him that everything will get done that needs to get done.

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