The One Thing
//Todd White
The Book of Luke records a time when Jesus and His disciples came to Mary and Martha's house. Scripture tells us Martha began busying herself making sandwiches that Jesus never ordered. Her sister, Mary, however, didn't join in with the food preparations. Instead, she chose to sit at Jesus' feet and listen.
Martha finally blurted out, "Don't you care, Jesus? Look at what she's doing. I need help!"
"You're worried about everything," Jesus replied, "but Mary has chosen the one thing that is necessary." (See Luke 10:38–42.)
Without that one thing, life can stress us out and make us completely freaked out. In Mark chapter 4 we see that Jesus was in a boat and it was stormy. The disciples thought they were going to die. It was totally nutso outside, and Jesus was crashed out on a cushion sound asleep. I don't believe He was faking it either.
You see, the world Jesus lived from was far different from the world the disciples were in.
Jesus lived from a constant place of rest. This is monumental, because the world today is in a place of stress. Most of the Body of Christ is really freaked out, and they shouldn't be.
When I was born again, God became my Father, and I finally realized Who God my Father was. And when I realized that, I realized who I am as a son.
When God is our Father, our identity changes. Some Christians have weird ideas about father. Instead of adopting their new identity, they're still carrying the identity they formed as a son or daughter before they became a Christian. How they felt about themselves depended on whether they believed their mother and father cared about them.
The term born again means "to be re-fathered; to be birthed again."
Nicodemus said to Jesus, "No one can do what You do unless he is from God."
Jesus replied, "No one can see the Kingdom of God unless he's born again." (See John 3:1–3).
Nicodemus pointed out what Jesus did, but Jesus pointed out what we will see when we are born again. Now that I am born again, I get to see, but I also get to do. And because of how I see myself, my doing becomes a byproduct of my being. I will never have to do anything so I can be. If I try to be something by doing, I'm living under the Law. I'm trying to get something from God through my works.
We have to live in a place of being. And the first place we need to be in is the place of rest that Jesus paid for. If we don't get to that place, we'll be in a constant state of worry.
Matthew 11:28 (NKJV) says, "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Verse 29 says that we will find "rest for our souls."
We will never find rest in places or things.
Our rest is in Him.
What's the problem then? It's simple. Our mind is wacked out and spinning. When we come into the Kingdom, our brain spins on worry, worry, worry. When we go to church, our mind usually settles down during the worship service. Then we get psyched up. But when Monday rolls around, all of a sudden—WHACK!—life comes and cracks us one!
What if life couldn't crack us? What if we lived in a place of constant rest—a place where we were never stressed? Some say that's impossible.
But either the Bible's true or it's not. Either Jesus paid the price for us to enter that place of rest or He didn't. Scripture says, "Narrow is the gate that leads to life and broad is the road that leads to destruction" (Matt. 7:13–14).
Yes, this passage of scripture refers to the many different things we could worship. But I don't believe the narrow gate is just talking about getting to Heaven. I believe it's also talking about entering into God's rest.
It's up to each one of us to enter into God's rest. Instead of doing that, many Christians try to find peace here or there. They're not doing the one thing that Mary chose to do—sit at Jesus' feet. We will never find rest in places or things. Our rest is in Him. And when we plug into God's rest, we can maintain that rest no matter how bad it is around us.