I will exalt You, my God and King,
and praise Your name forever and ever.
I will praise You every day;
yes, I will praise You forever.
Great is the LORD! He is most worthy of praise!
No one can measure His greatness.
Psalms 145:1-3
As I read these verses for our devotional this week, I couldn’t help but ask myself, “Do I exalt the Lord? Do I praise Him daily?” Sadly, I didn’t have to ponder long to conclude that the answer is ‘no.’ The busyness of life has most definitely taken center stage. And everything and everyone else has been pushed to the side. School, work, trying to relax, doing homework, sleeping…because you have to sleep…making life choices. Life can often get in the way of the most important thing—spending time with God and remembering that my life is meant to be lived for Him with Him.
No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other,
or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and money.
Matthew 6:24
This also can apply to other areas of your life, such as work, relationship, ministry, or children. You cannot ‘serve two masters,’ the verse says. First and foremost, God is to be the center of everything, and when He is we will be fulfilled, and everything else falls into place.
I was quickly reminded of Martha. Poor Martha was so concerned with what she was doing for Christ rather than being with Christ and putting Him first.
Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught. But Martha was distracted
by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, “Lord, doesn’t it seem unfair
to You that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me.”
But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details!
There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it,
and it will not be taken away from her.”
Luke 10:39-42
I want to please God. I want to live a life for Him. I just pray that I don’t get so concerned with what I am doing and forget about living life with Him.
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Lord, help me to balance living for You, and keeping You in center place in my life. Amen.
About Ahmee Bronaugh
Ahmee, you hit the nail on the head–I need to be more concerned about what I am doing with Christ, rather than what I am doing for Christ. When I have that priority right I will be exalting Him, and everything else will fall into place. Thank you for this great reminder, because I can easily be a “Martha.”
I prayed your prayer to start my day off right. 🙂
thank you, ahmee, martha (and mary!) are perfect examples of this— “I just pray that I don’t get so concerned with what I am doing and forget about living life with Him.” <3