Jesus the butler

1. At the end of Luke 10, we find Martha, "cumbered about much serving" and thus is "knocking at the door", asking Jesus for aid. Jesus does not answer as Martha was clearly expecting - instead Jesus replies that Mary, who Martha was asking for help from, was about some other business.


2. In the middle of John 14 (v 13-14), we find Jesus stating that whatsoever we ask, in the name of Jesus, we can expect God to act on


3. At the beginning of the revelation of John (2:4), we have Jesus speaking about how the church of Ephesus forgot their first love.

One of the things I have been struggling with in my walk is that simple truth revealed in John 14, how we can expect, if we but claim in the name of Jesus Christ, we should to realize ANYTHING we claim. I have read about it, prayed about it, and I felt fully this was true. Yet, on those occasions where I have acted on this fact, I have not always realized the prayer. You could argue that the lack of arrival is a lack of faith - there is a phrase that describes this "Faith that Fizzles at the Finish had a Flaw in it From the First". Which is all well and good, but what about the practical application? How can we, as believers, put into practice the very real and literal applications resident in scripture?

Or to put it another way, could someone, who truly loves Jesus, but was angry at a country, pray for that country to be so decimated that no living being could live there, and expect that prayer to come to pass? Could they truly pray, in the name of Jesus, for "Invisible radioactive glow-worms to eat every man, woman, and child, from the intestines, outward, so that everyone in that country could be given a quicker glimpse of heaven and we wouldn't have to deal with their presence on earth"?

I don't think so.

So what tools does that leave a believer if they are truly, and literally, claiming God's words as practicable?

Let us look to scripture for what I believe is the answer, specifically Luke 10. Here we have Martha, clearly someone who believed in Jesus as having authority, and respecting that authority, implored Him for some help. And Jesus didn't grant it. Instead, he cautioned Martha that Mary was doing something more important than helping Martha. It is implying, to my mind, that there was a need Martha should have been more aware of - and that Jesus was taking care of the real need instead of the one Martha thought was the important one.

So my call to action today is simple:

• What needs SHOULD you be focusing on? Discovering what Jesus thinks you should be focusing on, and praying for the resolution of those dilemmas, will likely bear a great more fruit than praying for whatever needs pop into your head.


• And everything else you think is a need? Pray that Jesus will take care of them, will provide the necessary resources to resolve them, and then give them so completely to God that you aren't worrisome about them.