Spurgeon says it all.....

"Martha was cumbered about much serving."
Luke 10:40

Her fault was not that she served: the condition of a servant well becomes every Christian. "I serve," should be the motto of all the princes of the royal family of heaven. Nor was it her fault that she had "much serving." We cannot do too much. Let us do all that we possibly can; let head, and heart, and hands, be engaged in the Master's service. It was no fault of hers that she was busy preparing a feast for the Master. Happy Martha, to have an opportunity of entertaining so blessed a guest; and happy, too, to have the spirit to throw her whole soul so heartily into the engagement. Her fault was that she grew "cumbered with much serving," so that she forgot him, and only remembered the service. She allowed service to override communion, and so presented one duty stained with the blood of another. We ought to be Martha and Mary in one: we should do much service, and have much communion at the same time. For this we need great grace. It is easier to serve than to commune. Joshua never grew weary in fighting with the Amalekites; but Moses, on the top of the mountain in prayer, needed two helpers to sustain his hands. The more spiritual the exercise, the sooner we tire in it. The choicest fruits are the hardest to rear: the most heavenly graces are the most difficult to cultivate. Beloved, while we do not neglect external things, which are good enough in themselves, we ought also to see to it that we enjoy living, personal fellowship with Jesus. See to it that sitting at the Saviour's feet is not neglected, even though it be under the specious pretext of doing him service. The first thing for our soul's health, the first thing for his glory, and the first thing for our own usefulness, is to keep ourselves in perpetual communion with the Lord Jesus, and to see that the vital spirituality of our religion is maintained over and above everything else in the world.

Written by Spurgeon (morning & evening - Jan 24)

Simply breathing

Is your life so busy, so pressured that you feel you are on the verge of 'losing it'?
This is where I found myself and speaking to friends and family I found I was not alone in this.
Every two minutes, floods of tears, exploding with frustration about seemingly impossible situations.

It takes an intervention of God to bring His take on the problem, His Light to illumine the next step!

I had just rushed from the hectic schedule to my Pilates class. If you know about these exercises you will know that they are very much around breathing. Deep breath in, then slowly out as you exert the effort of moving that part of you body as per instruction. Breath in, then raise the leg on the out breath. In when you drop the arm, out when you lift it. Got it?
At the end we simply relax our bodies on the floor and breath deeply, in and out and in and out very slowly, very deeply. We get up from the floor refreshed and ready to face the world again.

It is cold outside when I leave, I feel pretty good about myself walking down the pathway towards the car. Then I sense the Lord speaking in my ear. 'If you would take life like this, with Me. Take Me in on the deep 'in breath' and then exert the effort with the strength of that 'in breath' gently using the oxygen of My Holy Spirit, My Word to complete the necessary movement. View every task as an individual movement, effort'.

I understood in a flash what He was saying but this is not so easy to explain to another. Then I was reminded how I try to swim, it's laughable.
Although I like the sense of weightlessness and movement in swimming I am not good at it, in fact I can't really swim! This is what I do.....

I take a deep breath, hold it and push off the side of the pool, take one stroke, two strokes, three, four, five but in this I have not breathed more than once! All that effort on one breath means that I arrive back on the surface having moved only a couple of feet, I am gasping and struggling for breath and in great danger of drowning. Hence I never attempt to go into the deep water, too dangerous for someone who expects to swim the channel on one breath!

Do you get my drift folks, we expect to get through our days on one breath of God, when He had sufficiency to give us a new breath for every stroke, for every necessary effort to get the job done. We can't move an inch without breathing, but that does mean one breath after another.
Masses of effort on one breath means we are more than likely to get into a mess, a drowning situation, dangerous!

I am now trying to take the first 'in take' of Christ at the start of the day, take one task as though it was one stroke in the sea of life, then coming up for another 'in take' before starting my next task. Regular breathing is the key to life, dah! And He is the breath of my life!

So away with trying to do everything in the flesh, it's not possible without drowning in the swell!

Pilates is all about strengthening your inner core, need I say more!

Surrender!

Now I am going to describe a day in my life that is no different from a day in your life. We all face issues as we work our way through a 24 hour period of time. sometimes it's our health, sometimes the old bank balance, sometimes our family or in particular one person in the family. That one person can change from time to time or become more than one person, especially if you are like me, an elder of the household or in more friendly terms - a grandmama!

I had a grandmama day last week, my grandson who is now 24 and autistic struggles everyday with simply trying to live independently in this abrasive non understanding world. Stuff you and I would just 'do' - to him it is more like an army manoeuvre. He becomes frustrated with us constantly offering advice and we become frustrated with him because the answer is soooooo obvious - to us anyway!

After three long conversations during that day he was no further forward and I felt useless, helpless and completely whacked as I tried to give him both reason and hope, wrapped up in armfuls of love.
I climbed the stairs to my quiet place where I generally meet with Jesus, usually when I am desperate! Tears rolling down my cheeks, questions filling my aching heart and head  'why don't you intervene Lord? He trusts You implicitly, where are You?  What can we do from so far away? Why is he so stubborn?' It seemed like there was a sigh, a sob and a deeper mystery with every step. I arrived by my bedside and with arms hanging limp by my side and my knees giving way under me I cried out  -  'Lord, I don't know what to say to You, what do I ask for, would You hear me anyway?
I fell to my knees, silenced in the sorrow, dumbfounded by the mountain before me. In the agony of that moment I felt His arms wrap around me and He whispered an affirmation that astounded me.

'You don't need to say anything, just fall at My feet'

I knew in an instant He had it in hand, He knew the right words to say and these words were already being laid in as many tears by Him as He was interceding for my dear grandson and for also for me.

After a while I came downstairs encompassed in a peace that could only come from Him. I went to the piano to play something and my hymn book flopped open on the hymn 'The Battle Belongs To the Lord' based on Ephesians 6:10-13. Please read it, I just melted in love and gratitude for the powerful truths contained in those words.

What I want to encourage you with this time dear reader is that we need to FALL AT HIS FEET. Take our eyes off all distractions, all confusion, all pain, all darkness, all failures, all notions and ideas, all the words of well meaning men, all of our own words and simply FALL AT HIS FEET.

Daniel did it, David did it, the leper did it as he approached Jesus in his helpless state and many other s throughout scripture, when they got to the point where the next step was not visible and not even possible, then it was time to acknowledge Him in awesome silence and worship.

Here's the promise -  2 Cor. 2:14-15 'But (regardless of what has gone before) thanks be to God, who ALWAYS leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in EVERY place. For we are the fragrance of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing'.

We are not useless or helpless without hope.

Just to know Him more, to focus on Him and let everything else go in the face of a great and loving God.

Whatever it is in your life, dear one, FALL AT HIS FEET  - He knows it all.