I remember listening to a message entitled “24 Ways to keep yourself in the will of God”. Frankly, the message depressed me. I knew there was no way I was going to be able to remember, let alone do all 24 things on a regular basis. The mere idea of trying to find the time to fit all 24 things into my day brought despair. I guess you could do one an hour if you didn’t sleep. I still don’t know how you can live like that.

The good news is that you don’t have to. God said that only one thing was needful. One thing. Not 24 or 12 or even 5 or 6. One thing. I know that sounds like it can’t be right, but it is. Take a look at Luke 10:38-42:

Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.” But the Lord answered and said to her, ” Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.”

Only one thing is necessary. I didn’t say that, Jesus did. The one thing is to sit at His feet, spend time in His presence and hear what He has to say. Everything else flows from that.

Jesus Himself said that He only spoke what the Father taught Him. He only did what He saw His Father do. In other words, everything that Jesus did came out of His relationship with the Father.

What I have learned is that you have two options. The first is to spend time with the Father, do the one thing and live your life from that place of intimacy with God. The other option is to wear yourself out with a lot of activity in an attempt to compensate for your lack of time with the Father. One is a life of peace, joy and rest. The other is religion.

To choose the one thing you will have to force yourself to lay aside some of your activity, sit at the Master’s feet and wait patiently. When I first started, I struggled. I wasn’t good at getting quiet and waiting on Him. It was harder than I imagined, but I kept at it and it has transformed by walk with God. Make the one thing a priority and it will transform yours as well.