LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
One Thing Is Needful
“But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:42).
One day on His earthly travels our Lord Jesus entered a village where a sister called Martha received Him to her house. She loved our Lord, so she wanted to do things for Him in order to please Him. Thus she went on to do this and that, preparing things for the Lord. Being pressed by this business, she became disturbed, grew worried and even annoyed. She was like anybody else, in that when something was wrong within her she began to blame others. She therefore came to the Lord and complained: “Lord, dost thou not care that my sister did leave me to serve alone? Bid her therefore that she helps me.”
The Lord replied: “Martha, Martha, thou art anxious and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful: for Mary hath chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” Martha did many things, but the Lord said that only one thing was needful, not many. You are planning to do this thing and that thing. You are doing this and that as though there were many plans to be Iaid and many things to be done; but one thing alone is needful. Not so many things, only one thing!
What is the one thing needful? None other than Christ himself, whom Mary herself had chosen. How can we obtain this one needful thing? By sitting quietly at the Lord's feet; and this was exactly what Mary did. Each one of us Christians must do something. The Bible even tells us that “if any will not work, neither let him eat” (2 Thess. 3:10).
We should work, and diligently so. Yet frequently while we are working we have no rest in us, as though we have forgotten the Lord. We are so busy from morning till night that we have not really prayed and studied God's word.
The motive for our labors, many spiritual works, and helps rendered to this brother or that sister is undoubtedly for the Lord's sake; yet somehow the difficulty lies in the fact that many affairs tend to make us forgetful of the Lord.
Let us therefore listen to what the Lord says: “But one thing is needful”! And this thing is to rest in Him, which, if done, ends up in our being satisfied with the Lord. (Watchman Nee).