Sermon of May 9, 2004: Mary Chose What Was Better Than Martha (Luke 10:38)

.The famous passage about Martha and Mary says there: “Now it came to pass, as they went on their way, that he entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at Jesus’ feet and listened to his word.”—Luke, Chapter 10, verse 38 and following—“But Martha was preoccupied with many tasks, and she came to him and said, ‘Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her, then, to help me.’ Jesus answered, ‘Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, but only one thing is necessary, and Mary has chosen the good part, which will not be taken away from her.’”

How many Marthas are here? Raise your hands. I’m joking. I’m going to raise mine. In fact, I’m going to preach this sermon to myself, and if you want to listen, you are welcome to do so as well.

But the Lord always wants to remind us what the good part is. I would give this sermon that very title: “The Good Part.” There are so many good things in the world that often we do not have to choose only between what is bad and what is good, you know? It would be so easy for some of us if it were like that. Simply choosing between black and white, but life is full of shades of gray.

And many times we have to choose between what is good and what is best. Between what is truly important and what is relatively important. And there are, in fact, things that by their very nature are so important, so essential, so central, that other things which are quite good in their own league pale in comparison with those essential things and are reduced to a category of third- or fourth-level importance.

And I believe that of all the passages in Scripture that speak to us about the priorities in life and what the chief priority should be, the passage about Martha and Mary is the most graphic, the most illustrative, the most dramatic, the most appealing and literary of them all.

It is a call to all of us to set our minds first on the things above. Set your minds on the things above. And that is what the Apostle Paul tells us: “Set your minds on the things above.” The Apostle Paul also says that “those who are of the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh.”

Who are the people who are of the flesh? Those who do not know the Lord? Here he is speaking about the Gentiles. He said, “The Gentiles worry about all those things.” What will we eat, or what will we drink, what will we wear, where will we go? They live consumed by worry. The Lord meant the pagans, those who do not know God, those who do not know the word of God.

Those who are of the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh: the world, worries, work, chores, duties. But the Apostle Paul says that “those who are of the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.” And by that the Apostle Paul does not necessarily mean that we are all going to be mystics, that we are only going to think about ethereal, eternal and spiritual things. No, we are in the world, and while we are in the world we have to work, we have to concern ourselves with our responsibility to pay the bills, take care of the kids, wipe the noses of the little snot-nosed ones, and so forth. That has to be done, right?

But what the Lord is looking for is something different. Where have we set our affections? Where have we placed our hearts? To what are we giving primary importance? Because ultimately that is God’s chief concern. Where is our heart? Where have we placed our affection?

The Lord said in one passage, “Wherever your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Wherever we place our chief affection, there our desire and attention will be. And so the Lord is seeking, brothers and sisters, for us to place our love and our highest priority in him and in him alone. And anything, brothers and sisters, that competes with that passionate and radical affection that God desires from us will not please him, even if it is something very good. Even if it is something as important as ministry, for example. Someone may say, “But what could please the Lord more than for me to devote my whole life to ministry, and to work and serve him and do this and do that?” But only one thing matters to the Lord, and that is why he says here, “But only one thing is necessary.” And until the Lord discerns that one thing in us, nothing we bring him will be pleasing to him.

I believe that is also why the passage from 1 Corinthians, Chapter 13, comes to mind, where the Apostle Paul says, “If I gave all my possessions to the poor, and if I surrendered my body to be burned, but do not have love, I am nothing. It profits me nothing.” Why? Because you can do many extraordinary, noble and praiseworthy things, yet do them for reasons that are not right before God. For secret motives, even out of selfishness. Can you give your money out of selfishness? What do you think? Can you give your body out of selfishness? Because many people, when giving those things, derive a certain secret satisfaction from giving them, because it satisfies some compulsive need within them. And so God, who is a great discerner of hearts, sees that dark vein in a sacrifice that appears very beautiful, and it displeases him. Because he knows how to discern, and what matters to him is this: With what kind of heart are you giving what you are giving?

That is why we can serve in ministry, yet if our gaze has strayed from the Lord of the ministry, then our sacrifice, our offering, is not pleasing to him. That is why Martha got into trouble with the Lord in this instance. It was not that the Lord was displeased that Martha was preparing the meal and wanted to attend to him and have everything in order. That was not the problem.

If it were not for the Marthas in the church, what would become of us? If it were not for hardworking, devoted, self-sacrificing people who are always volunteering. If it were not for ushers, deacons, worship leaders and ministry participants, what would become of this church? I give glory to the Lord for people who work hard in the Kingdom of God; glory to God for them. But that was not the situation in this case. We have to discern the passage properly. The problem was Martha’s heart. The problem was the attitude with which she was doing what she was doing. The problem was the contrast between Mary’s attitude and what her position before the Lord represented, and what Martha was doing. The problem was the context, not the act.

Because God is a very complex being when he judges human actions. God does not see only the bare action; he sees the context, he sees the attitude, he sees the purpose, and he brings all those things together, and from them he renders his verdict regarding human actions.

And in this case the Lord discerned something in Martha’s complaint that he did not like and that he wanted to point out, and he took advantage of that moment to leave us a teaching that would endure for two thousand years and will endure until Christ comes again. And he discerned that moment, and, as the illustrious teacher he is, he wanted to emphasize that point for our edification and to delineate a very important aspect of the Christian life. And that is the matter of the heart, of the offerings we bring to the Lord, of why we do it, and of what we give priority and importance to. Martha did not know how to discern the moment; she did not know how to discern the Lord’s heart.

In another passage, for example, the Pharisees complain that the Lord does not fast, that he does not wear sackcloth, that he does not do this or that to afflict his soul. So the Pharisees say, “The Lord is not spiritual.” You are not going to have me with you forever. When the master of the house, the bridegroom, is present, it is not the time to be sad, to fast or to grieve. It is time to celebrate. I am leaving before long. I am here for a time; I will be here for only a short time. While I am here, rejoice, celebrate me, be glad. When I leave, then fast; then observe days of confession and this and that. But while I am here, discern the moment. You have me with you; rejoice and celebrate.

The Lord was there visiting Martha’s home for a short time. If you had the King of the universe in your home, wouldn’t you want to spend every minute there beside him, asking him questions, embracing him, touching him, feeling his warmth and making sure that his face was engraved upon your minds for all eternity? So that you could smell him and see how tall he was and see the shape of his body? That is what one would do. One would stand there enraptured, gazing. At least that is what I would do, I think, and I hope that would be so.

Martha, however, was missing that tremendous opportunity by rushing back and forth: the pots, the spaghetti, the marinara sauce over there, the salad, the garlic bread in the oven. She was running everywhere, sweating, and her time was slipping away. The Lord was going to leave to continue on his way, and she was going to miss the opportunity to know him, to hear the timbre of his voice and to receive teaching for her life; and at that moment she was focusing her attention where she should not have been.

And Mary, who was possibly much simpler. Brothers and sisters, the world cannot exist with only Marys. If the world were made up only of Marys, it would come to a halt and nothing would get done. Mary had a different temperament, and she was a worshiper, which is good. Worshipers are wonderful and important, but the world does not run on worshipers. Businesspeople, workers, laborers, leaders and people with Type A personalities are needed in life to keep the world running. But at that moment Mary’s attitude was to discern and see the glorious person before her, to sit at his feet, to melt before him and spend every minute worshiping him with her lapdog gaze, wagging her tail and saying to him, “Lord, how wonderful that you are in our home.”

And that pleased the Lord, because the Lord delights in our worship, and the Lord is pleased when he discerns a heart surrendered to him that loves him above all things. That, brothers and sisters, pleases the Lord more than a hundred thousand baths of oil that you might give him, or a thousand slaughtered lambs, or a hundred fasts offered with an official, religious, ritualistic heart that is not pounding with passion for him. Our love breaks the Lord’s heart and releases blessing from him.

And when Martha complains, she is scolding him. She says, “Doesn’t it bother you? Good grief, Lord, where are your values? How can you allow such injustice?” And the Lord says, “Martha, Martha, you are very anxious, very troubled about many things—about the pots, the spaghetti, the marinara sauce, the salad, the garlic bread—and in reality that is too much. Right now what matters is that you celebrate me, that you enjoy me. If you want to give me a turkey-and-cheese sandwich, I’ll eat it, and open a bag of chips, and that is enough for me. But enjoy my presence. Mary has understood, Martha, what matters most. Unfortunately, you are anxious about many tasks.

The word “tasks” caught my attention, so I looked it up in the Greek dictionary. And the word for “tasks” is “diakonia.” Diakonia is where the word “deacon” comes from, and in fact the precise translation would be: you are preoccupied with much service. We can understand a little better how dramatic Christ’s words are, because, in other words, what Martha was doing was good; it was service to the Lord. She was serving the Lord. She was doing something to please the Lord, to serve him, to feed him and the disciples who were probably traveling with him. It was something useful and necessary. And the Lord says to her, “Martha, you are very troubled, very anxious, very preoccupied with serving me, and you are missing the most important thing, which is to worship me and please me with the quality of your feelings, with your company and with your undivided attention toward me. And Mary has understood what is most important, and therefore, Martha, I am sorry to tell you that I cannot take away from her what she has chosen. She has chosen what is best.”

Brothers and sisters, I want us to pause there, examine our hearts and truly ask ourselves: Do I do what I do in my life to please the Lord? Am I doing it on the terms of what God wants and what Christ wants me to do? Or am I doing it on the terms of what I want to do and how I want to do things?

Do you know what motivated me to choose this passage? Thinking about Mother’s Day. Thinking about our sisters—not only mothers, but women in general—so many excellent women whom we have in our church, women who are hardworking, efficient, dynamic and diligent.

Many work outside the home and arrive home without even taking off their coats, and immediately begin taking out of the refrigerator and pantry the food they are going to prepare for their families that evening. And when they finish that, they wash the dishes; and while the food is cooking, they are sweeping the house, taking care of the children and preparing so many things, and they go to bed exhausted. And day after day they do the same thing, and sometimes they do not have time to enjoy life and do other things that are necessary. And now I am also referring to everyone at the same time: God is calling us to adjust our priorities in life, to put first things first and to weigh in our hearts why we are doing what we are doing.

I believe, brothers and sisters, that in the end, busyness, worry, and anxiety come from an error in judgment that we have made, and sometimes they come from not fixing our eyes where we ought to be fixing them. And so, because we are off-center, we are unbalanced; we cannot enjoy life as God wants us to. And that is why we are burdened, troubled, exhausted, tired, fearful, anxious, and weak.

What God wants is an adjustment of the heart, an adjustment of the mind, an adjustment of our priorities. When our priorities are right, our lives will proceed differently. Many times, brothers and sisters, I believe that anxiety comes from disguised selfishness and disguised pride.

Some time ago, I was talking with a woman who is a violinist, a very good violinist. She is a very elderly lady who, in fact, lives terribly busy and anxious. It even prevents her from living and moving, and she told me that she recently went to a master class given by a great violinist who came to the New England Conservatory, and she asked him, “How can I stop becoming anxious when I am going to play the violin before an audience?” And this violinist said to her, “Look, when someone becomes anxious when they are going to play before an audience, it is a sign of pride, of excessive self-consciousness. Because if you unite yourself with the music and let the music guide you, you will have neither the time nor the opportunity to worry about how you are playing. The music will guide you.”

And that sounds very mystical, but it is very profound and very true. I believe that many times we become anxious in some way because we are excessively conscious of ourselves. I envy people who can stand before a crowd and sometimes say foolish things with the greatest ease and relaxation, and people applaud them as though they were expressing great truths because they are saying them with such ease and such lightness of spirit.

Many times, those of us who worry a lot and are tense do not allow God’s grace to flow through us with the freedom God desires. And that is also what happens in our daily tasks and actions. If we forgot about ourselves and simply did things with simplicity of heart, with innocence, I believe we would accomplish much more, enjoy ourselves much more, grow less tired, and please the Lord much more.

I believe that at the root of all great art lies the ability to relax. The athlete—the ballplayer, for example—who sees the batter hit the ball and runs while watching it with great ease and freedom, moving his glove as he goes; he runs, stops, and waits for it, and it seems as though the ball falls directly into the glove that is waiting for it, as though summoned by it. How effortlessly he does it! And yet, how complex that action is. If you had to break it down intellectually, it would take pages and pages to describe what that man has just done. But he has relaxed; he has learned to relax. If he were tense all over while waiting for the ball, when it came, he would drop it. But he has the ability to rest.

And God wants us to find rest for our souls, brothers and sisters. These things are connected. I am preaching about 10 sermons in one, because I am preaching about how we must put our priorities where they belong, place them in God, and love God above all things; and I am also preaching about finding rest for our souls and living life calmly. And you know what? The two things are linked. And we must also forget about ourselves in order to find rest: setting pride aside, seeing ourselves in the Lord’s presence, and looking only to Him so that we may find rest in our lives.

When God becomes so real to us that we have neither the time nor the desire to look at other things, everything falls into place, and we can live life more peacefully. Remember that I am preaching this sermon to myself. Because this week I have been a little anxious about the ministry and about my life, and where God wants me, and priorities, and all these things that can be resolved with a good plate of rice with beans and stewed meat. And on three or four occasions during this week, that word has come to me: “Do not be anxious about anything.”

One of the ways it came to me was through my brother, Manuel Caravallo, whom I do not know whether he is here. He called me on the phone and said, “Pastor, I just heard you on the radio this morning, and it says, ‘Do not be anxious about anything.’” And I myself am preaching to myself through the radio by means of another person. And it is true, brothers and sisters: anxiety comes from fixing our eyes where they should not be.

When you fix your eyes on God, when your affection is first and foremost set on God, all the other things go much better in life. Oh, if only we had the faith to make that principle the fundamental principle that guides all our actions and determines all our priorities and the things we do, and where we place things, and in what order.

If we had the faith to do that, brothers and sisters, we would be geniuses. We would live happily and could instantly neutralize any dart of the devil, any destructive thought, any destructive memory from the past, any wound life may have left us, any bitter experience. We could quickly place it all within the context of that God who says, “I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

“A thousand shall fall at your side, and ten thousand at your right hand, but it shall not come near you. Surely with your eyes you shall look and see the reward of the wicked, because you have made Jehovah, who is my hope, the Most High, your dwelling place. No evil shall befall you, nor shall any plague touch your dwelling, for he shall command his angels concerning you, to keep you in all your ways. They shall bear you up in their hands, lest your foot stumble against a stone. You shall tread upon the lion and the asp; you shall trample the young lion and the dragon.”

Why? “Because he has set his love upon me, because he has set his love upon me, because he has set his love upon me, I also will deliver him; I will glorify him.” Because we have set our love upon Him, that is the basis of all true success in life and of all rest. Setting our love, our gaze, our affection first upon Him.

The Lord says: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all the other things shall be added unto you.” In what context does He write that? I read it this morning in the context of “Do not worry, saying: What shall we eat, what shall we wear, or what shall we drink?” For the Gentiles seek all these things, but your Father knows that you need them. But seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you, added.” They are not the priority; they are not what should demand our first action, our first affection, our first impulse. The first impulse should be to please the Lord, and then all the other things will come in addition.

The Lord says: “Delight yourself in Jehovah, and he will grant you all the petitions of your heart.” Delight yourself in Jehovah! To delight yourself means not only to be pleased, to take pleasure, to derive benefit. No, it means to draw all the benefit, blessing, and joy from God. Put Him first, and he will give you the deepest things of your heart—even those things you do not even know you want—the Lord will give them to you.

Many times there are things that we want, but in reality the noble, wise, and powerful being that we have within us wants other things because it judges in a different way. Sometimes we desire with the surface of our consciousness, but there is a deeper being that desires more powerful things, and God, if we delight ourselves in Him, reads the letters that being sends him and gives us those things. Then, when we have them, we say: “How good that they did not give me what I wanted; they gave me what I truly needed and desired!” Because we delight ourselves in the Lord, because we seek first the things of the Lord.

Brothers and sisters, there is nothing that awakens God’s desire to bless someone more than a heart that loves him above all things.

The Word says in another passage that I love: “The eyes of Jehovah range throughout the whole earth, seeking to discover those whose hearts are perfect toward Him and to show himself favorable toward them.”

God is continually seeking, seeking, a man or a woman who loves him with all their heart, so that he may show himself faithful, good, and favorable toward that person. That is why my goal and our goal must always be, brothers and sisters, to cleanse our hearts of everything that is not pleasing to the Lord. There are people in this church and in other churches who give the Lord many things, but one discerns that their offering is not pleasing to the Lord, because there is a stain on the offering, because there is a heart, a mind, and a sensitivity that is damaged, that needs to be healed so that their offering may be pleasing to the Lord.

We are like dirty, foul-smelling beggars who give someone a piece of bread in an effort to please them, and that person, having a healthy sensitivity, would like to take it and eat it but cannot because that bread is tainted with sweat, dirt, and a bad smell. And what we must ask is: “Lord, examine me.” Look at my heart, as the psalmist David says: “Examine my heart, O God; test me and know my thoughts, and see if there is any way of perversity in me, and guide me in the everlasting way.”

We must ask the Lord: “Lord, what is the heart like with which I offer you my offering? What is my soul like when I stretch out my hands toward you and present my sacrifice to you? Because if there is something crooked in us, that will affect the quality of our sacrifice. And that is why our quest must always be: Father, purify me more and more each day. Purify my affection toward you, Lord. May what I give you come from a spirit that has been dealt with and purified by God, so that I may please you with what I give you.

When Cain gave his offering to the Lord, the Bible says that God was not pleased with Cain’s offering. And Cain later showed why God was not pleased with his offering, because there was something in him that did not please the Lord. There was a crooked heart in him. The offering is nothing. God does not need an offering. God does not need a banknote.

He says: “Look, if I were hungry, I would not tell you, because the whole universe is mine. I do not need you.” Do you think God needs the 10 dollars or the 50 dollars that you give him as a tithe? God does not need that. God is seeking your heart, given through that. And if you give those 50 dollars to the Lord out of obligation or inattentively, or you give them mechanically, or you give them to feel happy, or you give them to fulfill a duty, or you give them so that others will see you, your offering immediately ceases to be pleasing to the Lord. Keep it. Examine yourself first and ask yourself: How am I giving to the Lord? Father, help me each day to give to you with love, to give to you with joy, to give to you with passion, because that is what pleases you, Lord.

In that same passage, Abel says that he gave the Lord the fattest of his sheep and gave Him the firstborn; Abel gave the Lord the choicest ones, and in doing so he showed the quality of his heart. That is why the Lord was pleased. When Cain’s offering was rejected, he became filled with hatred. The hatred, the neurosis that he had within him, from his twisted heart—the evil mind he had—came to light; the animal that was giving the offering to the Lord came out immediately and showed why God was not pleased with him.

Martha was giving the Lord an offering anxiously, mechanically, because it was what she did every day. Martha was the kind of person who, if Mussolini had been there, would have kept working in the same way. The Lord understood that and said to her, ‘No, Martha, that is not what interests Me. What interests Me is the quality of your heart.’

Brothers and sisters, sometimes I rack my brain trying to produce in you and in myself a heart that is passionate toward God. I believe that this is my greatest goal as a pastor: for every one of you and me to be radical lovers of the Lord. People radically committed to God. People who love God desperately. People who are willing to go to hell itself, if they have to go, for love of the Lord. That is my great desire. I do not care about anything else, because I know that if I achieved that, everything else would be added as well. I would not have to tell you to come to prayer; I would not have to tell you to tithe. I would not have to tell you to sign up to serve in the different ministries, because you would naturally want to do it, because your heart would be there.

The person who has resolved the problem of the heart is already ready to do anything God needs them to do. But for many of us, brothers and sisters, our priorities are twisted. Our affection is set on other things, and that is why we do not enjoy the peace God wants for our lives.

We come to church and give the Lord a few praises. Sometimes we do it while thinking: What are we going to do after we leave church? Will the Red Socks be playing today or not? Will Pedro be the one pitching, or who? We are thinking about which restaurant I am going to go to and what I am going to order. Will I order the ‘chicken cordon bleue,’ or will I order ‘the garlic shrimp?’ While we sing: ‘Draw me close to You today.’

And the Lord is discerning what is in our hearts. Brothers and sisters, I wish I had much more time to unpack this central teaching. Do you want to have peace and joy in your heart? Forget about yourself. Die to your need to satisfy your needs and live for the Lord. Take your possessions, sell them, give the money to the poor, and follow the Lord, as the Lord told the rich young man. Why did the Lord say that to the rich young man? Because when the rich young man came burdened spiritually, he said to him, ‘Well, Teacher, what must I do to be saved?’ And the Lord said to him, ‘Well, you know the commandments; do this, do that.’ And he said to him, ‘Lord, I have already done all that since my youth.’ ‘You lack only one thing: take what you love most, which is your money, sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and then, free and with nothing, follow me. You will find the peace your heart needs.’

And what does the Bible say? That the young man went away sad because he had many possessions. And that is the central problem of humanity and of the church: many of us come to church like the rich young man. We are religious people with respectable lives. We do many very good things worthy of respect and admiration, but we still have not done what Christ wants, which is for us to love Him above all things, to give Him our deepest affection, and to give Him a blank sheet of paper with our signature at the bottom, saying, ‘Lord, here is everything I have, everything I am, all my dreams, all my dearest longings, my time, my affections, my plans, my projects, my wife, my daughters, my money, my bank account, my rest—everything, Lord, here it is. Now do with it whatever You want, and give back to me whatever You want, because I am going to live only for You, and I am going to love You above all things.’

When you do that, when you can reach that heroic act of crisis, God will then begin to reveal Himself as He truly wants you to see Him. He wants you to know Him. But you will not be able to deceive Him. Not until you give the Lord what He wants. There is only one thing He wants. Do not give Him pasta with marinara sauce or salad. He is not interested in that unless you give it to Him from a heart that worships Him and loves Him desperately.

Do not give Him a little piece of your time. Give Him all your time. Do not give Him alms. Give Him the APM card. Do not give the Lord an hour and a half of your time. Give the Lord twenty-four hours of your love and affection. Do not give the Lord a little piece of your children. Give the Lord all your children.

Listen to me. Only one thing is necessary, says the Lord, and when you reach that moment, my brother, my sister, then everything falls into place. Then you can walk with joy, with freedom of spirit, with lightness of spirit. Things begin to work in your life because God will be on your side. God will bless you. God will open doors for you. God will make sure that your emotional life is balanced, that you reach the goal, that your problems are resolved, and that you lack neither food nor clothing. For if He cares for the birds, how could He not care for you as well?

Oh, my God! If only we could understand this, brothers and sisters, if only we could forget about ourselves and look solely to the Lord.

‘Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that your spirits may not grow weary to the point of fainting.’

If Peter had kept his eyes on Christ while he was walking on the water, he would not have sunk.

There are many of us here—and I say this with love—who need to adjust their priorities. We need to adjust our priorities. There are many here who have not given the Lord what the Lord wants. And the Lord, in His mercy, loves you, blesses you, and receives you, and He receives your sacrifice, but it is not completely pleasing to Him. For many of us have not reached that point of surrendering to the Lord. We have transferred our membership card from one church to another, from one religion to another. We believe that is all there is to it, and we want to continue with the same religiosity and the same stinginess in which we lived before entering the gospel.

That is not acceptable. It is not acceptable. Listen to me! From the person all the way in the back, at that far end, to the person in the middle: it is not acceptable. Only one thing is needed: to love the Lord with all our heart, all our mind, all our soul, and all our strength. It is to love Him desperately and to have died in Him.

When we do that, then life falls into place, and the Lord blesses us, approves of us, is pleased with our offering, and opens paths for us. Many of us worry so much about rest, and that is why we live tired. We worry so much about holding on to money, and that is why we live in poverty. We worry so much about having fun, and that is why we live bored. Nothing gives us joy: not the DVD player, not the CD player, not the tape player, nor any of the players we have.

Because all those things fall into place only after we have first settled the question of where I stand and whom I love most. When we please the Lord in that way, then everything else comes. Learn to let go of yourself so that you may find yourself. As long as you are preoccupied with finding yourself and preserving yourself, what you are seeking will slip away from you just as water slips away when you try to grasp it in your fist—it runs out between your fingers.

But when you forget about that and focus on the Lord, and focus on pleasing Him, loving Him, and surrendering yourself to Him, all the other things are added to you. What you so greatly desired to find, God will give you.

‘If the grain of wheat does not fall to the ground, it dies and remains alone; but if it does not die, it bears much fruit,’ says the Lord.

It says that unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain. ‘It is useless for you to work, burden yourselves, and go to bed in the early morning,’ says the Lord, ‘for God will give sleep to His beloved.’ It is useless for you to be working, killing yourself, and saving while not giving the Lord what He needs; all your efforts will come to nothing because you are not building on the rocks.

Rest in the Lord. Rest in the Lord. Love the Lord above all things. Set your priorities on Him, and you will find rest for your soul. May the Lord help us.

Let us bow our heads for a moment. Let us examine our hearts this morning. God wants you to find rest for your soul. God wants Roberto Miranda to find rest for his soul. He tells me, ‘Do not be so anxious. Do not worry so much about what you will eat, what you will drink, where you will go, or where you will be in ten years. Do not even ask yourself so much—do not even ask yourself so much whether you are pleasing Me or not. Do not try to figure that out. Simply love Me above all things. Love Me. Focus on Me. Seek Me, and then I will take care of you. Do not live your life burdened with pangs of conscience and guilt, always worrying about this or that. The only thing that matters to Me is one single thing: that you love Me above all things, that you seek Me first, that you delight in Me, and that you give Me your best—your best time, your best energies, your best resources. That you always prefer Me, and then I will give you what you need.’

Father, this morning we resolve to try again to love You above all things. We need You, Lord. Forgive us for being anxious and for doubting Your promises, for putting ourselves before You. Help me to have a simple, contrite, humble heart like Mary’s, one that loves You above all things. This morning, Father, we once again make an effort to please You, and we examine our hearts and ask You: Enlighten us. If we have not given You everything we need to give You, we ask You again. May it be so today. Surrender your life; surrender all your affections to the Lord. Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Jesus. We worship You; we bless You, Lord. Hallelujah, hallelujah. God bless you, brothers and sisters.