Day 4 – A Month with Mary and Martha

You have to hand it to Martha, she knew where to go with her complaint: straight to Jesus.  I like people who tell you what they are thinking.  You don’t have to wonder about them.  But when they start getting bossy, well, that’s another thing. 

Here we have Martha giving the Son of the Living God marching orders: “Tell her to help me.”   Reading this has made me wonder if my prayers don’t sound a little bossy sometimes.  Instead of just praying, I may offer my expert advise on how to answer that prayer.  In effect, I’m praying the answers I want to get.  “God, here’s the problem and here’s how You should fix it.”  Bossy.

I’ve always liked the way Jesus’ mother handled a stressful situation.  The wine was running out at the wedding in Cana, which would have been a huge social embarrassment for the family.  Mary just went to Jesus and told him the problem.  “They have no more wine.”  Period.  Then she told the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.”  That’s it.  She didn’t lay out the options, didn’t make any suggestions, didn’t tell him what to do.  She trusted he would do something, and left the details to him.  I want to pray more like that.   When I have a problem, I need to go straight to Jesus, tell him what’s going on and then be willing to do whatever He tells me. 

Let’s keep this straight:  He’s the boss and I am not.