Love God More

But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she came to Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Then tell her to help me." Luke 10:40

Dear Friends,

Look at the verse above. Can you relate to Martha? I sure can. In fact, one Thanksgiving comes to mind. We hosted Thanksgiving that year. My husband's brother and his family were with us. The family time was great. The meal was enjoyable. And then came the clean up, and I found myself all alone in the kitchen. Everyone else was in the living room enjoying each other. And I can remember thinking, "Seriously?! Is no one else going to help?!" Yes, I can certainly relate to Martha. Let's get the whole story from Luke 10:38-42:

As they went, He entered a village. And a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. She had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus' feet and listened to His teaching. But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she came to Him and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Then tell her to help me." Jesus answered her, "Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed. And Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken from her."

You see, Martha had invited Christ in. She welcomed Him. And she wanted to serve Him. She probably wanted everything just perfect. And before she realized it, all her focus was on what she was doing and not on Him. And the work was too much. She was frustrated that she had no help. So, she went to Jesus, expecting Him to tell Mary to help her. But that's not what He said. First He pointed out the fact that she had let her service to Him make her anxious and troubled. And then, He told her that only one thing was needed. One thing- Him. Jesus is the only thing that we need! So, service is good. But our focus needs to remain on Jesus, spend time with Him. We shouldn't let service or busyness of life drown out Jesus. Martha invited Jesus in, but she didn't take the time to sit at His feet. Instead, she immediately jumped into serving. When we serve... as we live, we need to sit at Jesus' feet FIRST. And then go back to Him time and time again. Martha wasn't wrong in what she did. But, we need to fill up on Jesus before we serve Him and others. He must always be the focus and the priority. So if we find ourselves busy, busy, busy with life and service but we feel far from Jesus, then we need to stop what we're doing and sit with Him. Jesus is the good part. We need Him.

Page Details: I used the following Sweet 'n Sassy Stamps sets: Prayer Time, Much Love, Consider the Wildflowers, and Gear Up. Prayer Time and Much Love are part of the December release. You can get Much Love for free with a $75 purchase! This is a super simple page! I just stamped the images and colored the centers of the flowers with Prismacolor pencils.

Have a blessed week, friends! Don't let the busyness of Christmas cause you to forget Jesus, the reason for Christmas. Spend time with Him every day, throughout the day. Remember, Jesus is the good part!

Rooted in Love

 

"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." - Ephesians 3:14-19

The book of Ephesians is packed full of rich, vibrant truth and teaching and this passage in chapter 3 has been on my heart and mind in recent weeks. I've been thinking a lot about love, what love means, and how I can better love the people in my life. If I'm honest, it's difficult for me to love and show love to others, so this passage in Ephesians has been teaching me: in order for me to love others, I need to be rooted and grounded in the love of Christ.

Matthew Henry, in his eloquent wisdom, has this to say:

The fixing of pious and devout affections in the soul: That you being rooted and grounded in love, steadfastly fixed in your love to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to all the saints, the beloved of our Lord Jesus Christ. Many have some love to God and to his servants, but it is a flash, like the crackling of thorns under a pot, it makes a great noise, but is gone presently. We should earnestly desire that good affections may be fixed in us, that we may be rooted and grounded in love. Some understand it of their being settled and established in the sense of God's love to them, which would inspire them with great ardours of holy love to him, and to one another. And how very desirable is it to have a settled fixed sense of the love of God and Christ to our souls, so as to be able to say with the apostle at all times, He has loved me! Now the best way to attain this is to be careful that we maintain a constant love to God in our souls; this will be the evidence of the love of God to use. We love him, because he first loved us. In order to this [Paul] prays for their experimental acquaintance with the love of Jesus Christ. The more intimate acquaintance we have with Christ's love to us, the more our love will be drawn out to him and to others (emphasis mine)."

Page Details

The idea behind this page, of a tree roots being grounded in hearts, came to me quite awhile ago - I just needed the right supplies and stamp sets to put it together. The Bible talks quite a bit about the fruit of a person's life, but a tree cannot be full and fruitful if it doesn't have good soil. The imagery is meant to convey the importance of being rooted and grounded in the soil of love in order to grow strong and produce good, loving fruit for Christ. I had actually journaled in this page two years ago at a Christian family camp, and my notes from that message in July 2018 were still relevant to my life today. I simply illustrated the tree over the notes I had already written. 

Two things things have the power to destroy a family: 1) words and 2) anger. Of course, two of the biggest things I struggle with daily! 😳 But there are things that can help overcome these destructive tendencies: speaking the truth in love, and learning to love and show grace and forgiveness. I'm 36 years old and have been a mom and partner for 20 years and I'm still at this spot: learning to show grace and love to my husband and children, learning to be sympathetic, learning to practice forgiveness. I'm not naturally good at any of it, but by God's grace through me, I can learn and put into practice these characteristics so that I may build my family up instead of tear it down. The only way I can do this is by Christ dwelling in me and being rooted and grounded in His amazing love. 

I used Distress Oxides, watercolors, a Zig Writer pen, and the below stamp sets to create this page. 💜 

 

  

The great thing about this page is that it could be illustrated in so many different ways, using really any kind of medium. I'd love to see your creative take on this verse! Take a minute to read this passage, pray, illustrate, and then tag me so I can see. I'm @journalingjoy on Instagram. 😊

Much love in Christ, 

Janelle 🎕