The story of Martha and Mary from Luke chapter 10 is one of those Biblical stories that evokes strong emotions upon its reading. Often times in our first, second, maybe even third reading, we immediately resonate with Martha’s sentiment of feeling alone and needing help. As you read, you can almost hear Martha’s calm demeanor devolve into sighing deeply, clearing her throat loudly, and making as much noise as possible in the kitchen desperately trying to get someone’s, anyone’s attention to help.

Surely, Jesus would understand. Surely Jesus would step in and correct the situation. Yes, Jesus always understands; truth is, we’re the ones who don’t understand. We think we have the solution- “Jesus, if you just did this, everything would be fine.”

Several years ago, the Lord had moved our church for about the 17^th time in the history of our operations. We were renting space from a sister church in a small neighborhood saturated with at least 3 other churches of different denominations. This is when and where the Lord had Martha cross our path. Martha is a petite elderly woman who lives across the street from where we were renting. She was curious yet timid and seemingly too busy to enter the church.  She was always walking to somewhere despite our invitations.

We weren’t able to make a connection with her beyond small talk as we reached out each week to invite her in as she hurriedly walked past on her way to somewhere, sometimes nowhere other than to just walk. Each hurried conversation, one of us offered to pray for her, but she always answered, ‘No, thank you.” Even offering food from our food pantry was turned down. She always had to be on her way.

Then the Lord moved us again to a completely different location, only to move us back after 9 months. When we returned, so did Martha in her curious and timid hurriedness. I prayed for the Lord to bring her in week after week, until the Lord said, ‘Meet her where she is at.” So week after week, I would meet her on the steps of the church, or in the parking lot as she hurried by until one day, she stopped to talk. Finally, she stopped to talk! “Can I pray for you ?” I asked. She simply nodded and smiled. I prayed and she hurried off again.

This continued for several months. Sometimes she accepted the prayer, other times, she was rushing off. Every time she was invited in but politely declined. But then it happened. One particular day, after inviting her in she said, yes! Then she followed it with, “Do you have Jesus in there? Will you be talking about Him so I can learn more?”

I just about fell over in surprise and managed to stutter the words, “Of course, Jesus is who we talk about every week!” She came in and we brought her to the food pantry to pick out whatever she needed or wanted(usually including guava pastries or a lemon loaf) before showing her into the sanctuary. She stayed for the praise and worship but left hurriedly before the sermon. This continued every week for several weeks, until she decided to not rush off after the music and stayed for the sermon. This, too, continued every week for several weeks until the one Sunday, when the Lord stopped time for all of us.

It happened during one of our ordinary worship services. After the praise music and after the announcements, Martha asked if she could approach the podium and speak. With the Holy Spirit’s nudging, I welcomed her up to the microphone.

“I just want to thank God. I want to thank Him for showing me this place. I want to thank God for every person in this place who welcomes me and helps me pick out food to take home.” She concluded her thanksgiving with a prayer over all of her new friends, whose eyes were all teared up at the transformation that the Lord had done, right before our eyes. Martha had learned that her hurrying was a symptom of her fear of a strange new place and people. But God had taught her how to be still and know Him while teaching the rest of us that His love never comes back empty.

Though we have our thoughts about how circumstances should play out, the Lord’s plan is always greater and His timing perfect. For the Marthas that we have in our own lives, don’t give up on them; don’t stop praying for them. Whether they are chasing after the ‘good’ because of fear, or stubbornness, or pride or something else, the Lord will show them the ‘better’  through His love poured out through you, even if that love must be poured out from afar. His faithfulness is revealed through our persistent obedience to be His hands and feet to the lost, the broken, and the ones who need help but feel alone.

Maybe, the Martha in your life is you. The Lord is reaching out to you today, to slow down and hear Him. Look around at the people or the person that the Lord has placed in your life to offer help and more importantly lead you to the One with all the answers who will never leave you alone.

*Martha continues to attend service every week and upon entering the sanctuary, she walks around greeting every person with a hug and a warm smile that says I’m glad you’re here. She always knows where her seat is- it’s the one with the lemon loaf!

Have you ever felt that you were at a breaking point? Like a bow in an archer’s hands, stretched almost to the point of breaking until the exact moment the archer knows to release the arrow for maximum impact. Maybe you feel that you’ve been stretched so far for so long, you’re wondering when you might break? Maybe you’re at that point now, wondering when the Lord will step in. Do you find yourself asking, how long Lord? The Psalmist understood that very well..

Psalm 13 New Living Translation

¹ O Lord, how long will you forget me? Forever? How long will you look the other way?² How long must I struggle with anguish in my soul, with sorrow in my heart every day? How long will my enemy have the upper hand?

³ Turn and answer me, O Lord my God! Restore the sparkle to my eyes, or I will die.⁴ Don’t let my enemies gloat, saying, “We have defeated him!” Don’t let them rejoice at my downfall.

 What if our circumstances are not about a certain length of time but instead about our soul? In every trial and challenge, our usual human response is how long, Lord, how long? We don’t like difficulty, and we certainly don’t like the pain of uncertainty, disappointment and unmet expectations. But what if His answer to how long, is ‘just enough’- Just enough for us to know who He is?

What is the Lord’s goal in our lives? Scripture gives a clear picture that God wants us to know Him.

John 17:3 New International Version

³ Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.

Psalm 46:10 New Living Translation

¹⁰ “Be still, and know that I am God!

Colossians 1:9-10 New Living Translation

⁹ So we have not stopped praying for you since we first heard about you. We ask God to give you complete knowledge of his will and to give you spiritual wisdom and understanding. ¹⁰ Then the way you live will always honor and please the Lord, and your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while, you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.

If God’s purpose in our lives is for us to know Him, then wouldn’t it mean that every trial and every hardship is about the Lord revealing who He is? Let’s look at Isaiah 43.

Isaiah 43:1-2 New Living Translation

43 But now, O Jacob, listen to the Lord who created you. O Israel, the one who formed you says, “Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you.  I have called you by name; you are mine.
² When you go through deep waters, I will be with you. When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown. When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up;  the flames will not consume you.

The Lord is speaking to Israel about their hardships. They’re being stretched as a bow in the Lord’s hands; not to experience setbacks, but to be setup for something better that the Lord has planned for them.

‘When you go through deep waters, I will be with you.’
‘When you go through rivers of difficulty, you will not drown.’

‘When you walk through the fire of oppression, you will not be burned up.’

In every heartache, in every overwhelming moment, in every fiery trial- the Lord is with you. He is revealing His faithfulness, His goodness, and His mercy, His grace, and His love.

As we continue in Isaiah 43 to verse 7, “everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.”

You were created for God’s glory and through every trial and ‘how much longer’ moment, He is revealing His glory to you that you may know Him more. In the ‘how much longer’ moments, what do you long for? Do you long only for relief, or do you long for the presence of your Savior in all His glory and strength because you know that He alone brings peace despite the storm?

Is it enough to simply declare Bible verses or does the Lord desire that we know Him and experience Him in moments lived out with those Bible verses? Even Job, through all of his suffering declared- “I had only heard about you before, but now I have seen you with my own eyes.’-Job 42:5 Only through the trials did Job begin to know God.

The Apostle Paul through all of his hardships and trials longed to know God more.

Philippians 3:10-11 New Living Translation

¹⁰ I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, ¹¹ so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!

If our ‘how much longer’ moments reveal God to us and help us to know Him more; and knowing Him more brings Him glory, are we able to withstand the tension better? As we know Him more, can we rest in our Majestic Archer’s hands as He prepares to set us up for greater things, greater impact?

I pray for you as the apostle Paul prayed for the Ephesians.

Ephesians 3:14-21 New International Version

¹⁴ For this reason I kneel before the Father, ¹⁵ from whom every family^[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. ¹⁶ I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, ¹⁷ so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, ¹⁸ may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, ¹⁹ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

²⁰ Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, ²¹ to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.