Wednesday, January 23, 2008

The Captivity of Activity

Bible Teacher Beth Moore often talks about the "Captivity of Activity". Below is a few of her thoughts... they tie in well with what we talked about yesterday in our "Mary and Martha" study.

God never meant for us to live frenzied lives. Backbreaking schedules are not His idea. How can we, believers in Christ, restructure our lives and find a little refreshment?

• Reestablish the goal. Isaiah 43:7 tells us we were created for His glory. The purpose of our brief journey on this planet is to glorify God. He desires for us to pour the best of our energies into God works. Go back to the basics.

• Redirect your focus. Matthew 6:33 makes a revolutionary promise. If we seek God first, He will direct our schedules and help us to discern His priorities through the work of the Holy Spirit. Give the Matthew 6:33 approach a try! It really works!

• Rethink your motivation. Galatians 1:10 prompts us to ask ourselves if any of our activities are seeking man’s approval rather than God’s. If we seek to please people rather than God, rules will constantly change and expectations will soar.

• Rest in God’s will. Hebrews 4:10 says, “Anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work.” Sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? God is not unreasonable. He does not heap on stress and then refuse to grant us rest. None of us can do one hundred things to the glory of God. Let’s find rest in His will and do a few things well.

1 comment:

Sarah said...

Thanks for posting, Leanne! This is great. I just started reading the book "Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World" and the first thing to stick out is that we are maybe trying to do more than God is asking us to do, or at least we are often doing different things than what God is asking us to do which makes us so tired and worn out. Rest... yes that sounds good!