Dove Awards: Reverent WonderSample

At His Feet: Ceasing Your Work to Sit

By: Tasha Cobbs Leonard

There is something quite special about the way a child greets their parents after not seeing them all day long. The way they drop whatever they are doing the second they hear the key turning in the door. The joy that floods their face at the sound of their voices. The warmth of the hug that is exchanged to express an acknowledgment of their presence. It’s beautiful. More than beautiful, it is also reverential. A child’s reverence for their parent’s presence shows deep honor and respect; it proves pure admiration.

In so many ways, I believe our reverence to our Heavenly Father should be the same way when we encounter His presence. There should be an overwhelming amount of excitement at the realization that Jesus is in the same room as us. The type of excitement that embodies reverence and says, “I’m so honored that You are here”. I believe this is the excitement shown by Mary when Jesus arrived at the home of her and her sister, Martha.

Martha opened the door for Jesus, but Mary took a seat at His feet to absorb all that He had to share. Instead of taking a break from her work to engage the guest of honor in her home, Martha focused on what she felt needed to get done. Her motive wasn’t to dishonor Jesus, of course, but she did miss a perfect chance to recess from the hustle and bustle of life and simply relish in an intimate conversation with Jesus.

Have you ever forfeited—even if unintentionally—an opportunity to give God undistracted devotion because of the work you were focused on?

Sometimes reverence looks like more than merely opening the door for Jesus to come in. It is also stopping everything to bask in His presence. Sometimes it means choosing worship over working. It’s so easy to be present for a moment, like Martha, but not participate in the moment. It’s even easier for our reverence to be at the mercy of our routines.

If you ever get the chance to choose between working and sitting at His feet, I hope you will always choose to sit.

Respond: What can you move aside from your daily routine to make sure there is time-space for you to sit with Jesus?

Scripture: Luke 10:38-42