it will not be taken away

We’ve probably all heard teaching on Mary and Martha, usually with the focus on frazzled Martha and her misplaced priorities. But what of Mary? Gregory Dickow, teaching on God’s favor, points out something that I missed. Jesus says, “Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:42 ESV). Dickow calls attention to the final phrase: Mary’s time with Jesus can never be taken away.

What a wonderful promise! For those of us who have grown up with DBR (daily Bible reading), QT (quiet time), and One Year Bibles, we secretly may be thinking, “Yeah, yeah, tell me something I don’t know.” (Though we wouldn’t actually say it out loud, right?) That’s because we’ve had it drummed into us that we must spend time with God to read and pray. And I’m not knocking that; I’m trying to instill this discipline in Zack. But let me repeat: What a wonderful promise! Jesus says that what Mary chose is hers forever. For those of us concerned about “return on investment” and time management, this is worth considering. To put it another way, we can’t lose when we give time and attention to God.

Back when I was at Olé Miss, struggling to keep up with the work in some of my classes and questioning whether I had time to go to church on Wednesday nights, my friend David told me that God redeems our time when we invest it in Him. Give God this time and He’ll help you with the rest of your time. I have found that to be true. God honors choices that put Him first.

This is helpful to me this time of year as I move from the flurry of finishing the summer semester to the flurry of starting the fall semester. It’s easy for me to think, “I have too much to do; God understands.” So I say, “God bless me as I work” and get to work (and mentally add, “Talk to you next week!”–though, again, I wouldn’t say it out loud). Yes, God understands; after all, He knows everything that’s going on far better than I do. But I suspect He’s disappointed that He doesn’t get to spend more time with me. But I’m real loser in this scenario.

We have few things that offer such a guarantee: “it will not be taken away from you.” I’m going to write this phrase in big letters and put it on the wall next to my reading chair as a reminder of what I’m really choosing when I give my time to God.

I encourage you to do the same. And I hope you’ll come back and comment on what you’ve gained that can “never be taken away.”