Overflow

We have been talking about intimacy with God, friendship with God, walking closely with God and drawing in closer to Him.

Do you remember how fired up you were about Jesus when you first got saved? How you hung onto every single word God spoke. How you hungered and thirst for Him. How you wanted to be in His Presence day and night and wanted to forget the world and be consumed by Jesus? Are you still that way today? Do you still get excited when you get a new revelation? Would you drop everything at a moment’s notice to sit at the feet of Jesus and be in His Presence?

What I have realised about myself is that as I have grown in my spiritual walk, I have become more focused on what needs to be done. I am goal oriented by nature, so it is easy for me to think in check lists and to do lists. I love to get things done! Is there anything wrong with serving Jesus? Absolutely not. But we cannot separate serving Jesus from intimacy with Jesus.

I once heard someone say that our service, our ministry, should be an overflow of what God is doing in us. Meaning, the things we do for Jesus, they need to come from a place of fullness. A place where our cup is filled and is overflowing. Not from a place of dryness. A place of religious duty. God does not like it when we do things “cause we have to”. God wants us to serve each other in love. Meaning we need to first have love, selflessness, kindness and all the things the Bible says love is in 1 Corinthians 13 flowing in us so they can overflow out of us.

I was thinking about the story of Mary and Martha in the Bible. Luke 10:38-42 says, “As Jesus and the disciples continued on their journey, they came to a village where a woman welcomed Jesus into her home. Her name was Martha and she had a sister named Mary. Mary sat down attentively before the Master, absorbing every revelation he shared.

But Martha became exasperated with finishing the numerous household chores in preparation for her guests, so she interrupted Jesus and said, “Lord, don’t you think it’s unfair that my sister left me to do all the work by myself? You should tell her to get up and help me.” The Lord answered her, “Martha, my beloved Martha. Why are you upset and troubled, pulled away by all these many distractions? Mary has discovered the one thing most important by choosing to sit at my feet. She is undistracted, and I won’t take this privilege from her.”

Martha was bold, I’ll tell you that! I can imagine everyone in the room was leaning in, hanging on every word Jesus was saying, soaking in His Presence and totally lost in the moment, and in storms Martha. Snatches the attention away from what Jesus was saying. Interrupts Jesus. Not so she can call her sister Mary to the side so they can talk it out, but so she can tell Jesus what to do.

There’s so much going on in the above text. But ultimately, what is clear is that Martha was serving from an empty place. When we serve from an empty place, everything is hard. It is exasperating. It does not feel like its working. We feel overwhelmed. Why? Because we are trying to do it in our own strength. Intimacy with Jesus requires us to recognise our need for Jesus. To recognise how we need to sit at His feet ad listen to His every word. How we need to be in His Presence.

Jesus didn’t get mad at Martha and embarrass her in front of everyone. He spoke to her gently, lovingly inviting her to also sit at His feet like Mary.

We can all be a bit like Martha sometimes. Goal oriented and not sensitive to what Jesus is doing. Jesus is inviting us to take a moment to sit at His feet and listen closely to His voice. He is inviting us to drink of His Presence so we can fill our cup and serve people in love and with our hearts full.

Love and blessings,

Melissa Tsingano.