The Danger of a Frustrated Heart | Why Are You Always Overwhelmed

A Mother's Day Reflection

Good morning. Welcome to church. It is good to see everybody. Happy Mother's Day! If I didn't get to you earlier, I tried to get to everybody, but I know I didn't, so happy Mother’s Day. Let's pray and jump right in. Father, thank you so much for today. Thank you for the gift of your Word and the gift of your body. Father, I pray a special blessing on each and every mother. As Jamie said, for those who are missing their mothers, I pray peace and hope in their lives. Lord, I pray for those of us who are struggling. Mother's Day isn't always a happy day for some of us. Some of us had difficult times with our mothers, and so Lord, I pray that you would bring peace to turbulent relationships. Lord, for those who are far away from their children, I pray you give them peace and let them know that they are loved in Jesus' name. Amen.

We are going to take a short, one-week deviation from our series on "Why What We Believe Matters." I was thinking about what to say on Mother’s Day. I didn't want the day to pass, and while I don’t want to have a holiday sermon every holiday, I thought we should take advantage of the opportunity. God, in Genesis 1 and in other places, talks about how He set the sun, the moon, and the stars in the sky to mark and keep time. The calendar is part of our life and part of what we do. So, I began to think about Mother's Day and what I could say to everybody, not just to the moms. If you read Proverbs, it is interesting what it has to say about women. We are going to be in Luke chapter 10 and 11 today, but let's make a quick, broad overview of Proverbs.

The Duality of Humanity in Proverbs

Proverbs is interesting because wisdom is personified as a woman, but so is the harlot who leads young men astray. It says that the man who finds a wife finds a good thing, yet it also says it is better to live in the corner of a rooftop than in a house with a contentious woman. We see this duality of humanity in the way Proverbs talks about women. We could probably do the same thing regarding men on Father's Day, but what is interesting to me is that the Bible is often very good at telling us what we should or should not do. The Ten Commandments tell us not to envy or murder. It is okay to say "don't do this," but Proverbs 31 tells us what a great woman looks like. We talked about that last year. If you want a Mother's Day sermon about how great women are, you can go look at that one.

This year, I thought it might be helpful for all of us as we try to be more like Christ. As we pursue Christ—male and female—we want to be the kind of person that others want to live with. How do we accomplish that? How can I be the kind of person people want to be around in my home? How can I live in peace? Nobody wants to go home to chaos. Nobody wants to go home to that unless you are the agent of chaos, and then you should repent.

Mary and Martha: Presence Over Performance

There are two things I want to look at, and they happen to be side-by-side at the end of Luke chapter 10 and the beginning of Luke chapter 11. I want to talk about the posture of our heart. Often, it is right to give "don'ts." When your kids are running into the street, you say, "Stop, don't do that." It is appropriate to say, "Stay in the yard." You could list a million "don’ts"—don’t cross the street, don’t ride your bike in the street, don’t go to the corner store—or you could just give one "do": "Stay in the yard". Today, I want to focus on the "dos." We could all list off twenty or thirty ways someone has irritated us, but instead, I want to look at the story of Mary and Martha and Jesus' teaching on prayer to discuss two important "dos" for living in peace and harmony. Whether you are a mother, father, child, or uncle, these apply to us all.

I was leaning heavily toward prayer because of books like The Power of a Praying Wife. I wasn't exactly the audience for that book, and while I don’t know its specific content, I know it was very popular. It spawned books for husbands, kids, and even animals. It hit the marketing circle of Christianity. However, what the Bible has to say about prayer is far more important than anything a human might say.

Let’s look at Luke 10:38: "As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home." This is the Martha who is the sister of Lazarus. Her sister Mary sat at the Lord's feet listening to what He taught. Hold that in your head—she was sitting at His feet. "But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, 'Lord, doesn't it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me'". The Lord replied, "My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details. There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken from her".

The Danger of Distraction

There are things here that are not immediately obvious. Mary was in the room with Jesus' disciples, listening to Him. She was in the position of a disciple. She wasn't just "not working"; she was actively trying to learn. The text says Martha was distracted. It never says Martha's service was bad or that her desire to be a good host was wrong. But two things stick out: she was distracted, and she had not discovered what was truly valuable in that moment—the Master was there.

Often in life, when we find chaos or combativeness at home, it is because we have taken our eyes off the things that matter most. I work with several young guys who are recently married or engaged. Jamie and I will be married twenty-six years next month. I tell these young men what Jesus said in the Beatitudes: "Blessed are the peacemakers". Part of what you must determine to do is be a peacemaker. When Martha is distracted and focused on other stuff, it is not unlike when we get mad at home about things that don't seem to matter to anyone else.

The Danger of a Frustrated Heart

When we are frustrated by things that don’t seem to matter to anyone else, we need to position ourselves to hear what the Lord is saying. We must ask: are we distracted? Are we correct or incorrect in our perspective? Where are we?

Imagine if this were any other day when Jesus wasn’t teaching. If Jesus, as a trained carpenter, was out in the yard doing work and Mary was just hanging out talking to Him and not working, then there would be a problem with her not working. But because Jesus was teaching, because of the specific importance of that moment, Martha missed the "one thing." We have to ask ourselves: what are the moments in our lives where Jesus is near? The Bible tells us to seek the Lord while He may be found and call out to Him when He is near. When He is near, how are we spending our time?

Living at peace with the members of our household begins with being mindful of what the Lord is doing right now. If you are deep in your own path or your own sin and you are not paying attention to the Lord, it is easy to become distracted. Before we transition to Jesus’ teaching on prayer, let’s think about what Mary and Martha's prayers might have looked like in that moment. Martha might have been praying, "Lord, I need you to send me some help because these people aren’t doing what they’re supposed to do. I’m out here slaving by myself for these kids and these lazy men." Because she wasn't focused on Jesus, her prayer would have been misdirected. If she had been focused on Him, she might have heard Him say, "Peace, Martha. Just come and rest."

Learning to Pray

In Luke chapter 11, we see the transition to prayer. Verse 1 says, "Once Jesus was in a certain place praying. As he finished, one of his disciples came to him and said, 'Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.'"

In the Gospels, we see a pattern. Jesus says, "This is how you should pray: 'Father, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. Give us each day the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation.'"

Many of us know this as the Lord’s Prayer. In our society, it has often become a rote recitation, like a good luck charm. But we shouldn’t miss the intentionality of it. Jesus is giving us a framework for how to interact with the Father. It starts with a posture of humility: "May your name be kept holy." This isn't just about God being holy; it’s about us asking that His name be kept holy in our lives.

Daily Provision and Forgiveness

Jesus then teaches us to ask for "each day the food we need." This is an act of humility and trust. It’s saying, "Lord, I need your provision for today." We might have savings or a plan for the future, and that is good, but we must recognize that we need the Lord’s help for whatever the day brings—situations we didn't expect, words we weren't ready to hear, or temptations we didn't foresee.

Then comes the difficult part: "Forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us." Jesus ties God’s forgiveness of us to our forgiveness of others. There is no place in the Christian life for an unforgiving heart. If we are struggling to forgive, it is often because we have forgotten how much we ourselves have been forgiven. Martha was so focused on the wrong she felt Mary was doing to her that she didn't even see her own need for forgiveness—her lack of awareness of Christ’s presence.

When we hold onto bitterness or demand respect, we lose our peace. We can have peace even with difficult people if we stop chasing the things we think matter and instead focus on the Lord.

Shameless Persistence

Jesus continues with a story about a man who goes to a friend’s house at midnight to ask for bread. The friend says, "Don't bother me, the door is locked and my family is in bed." But Jesus says in verse 8, "I tell you this—though he won't do it for friendship's sake, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence."

This is how we should approach God. Not with a "one and done" prayer, but with a persistent heart that refuses to leave until we have heard from Him. God is not like the grumpy neighbor; He is a good Father. He says if you, being sinful, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?

The Practice of Stillness

My encouragement to you this week is to spend time in stillness. Don’t just rush through your prayer list. Take ten minutes to sit quietly before the Lord. At first, your mind will race with all the things you need to do—the laundry, the emails, the errands. Push those aside. Practice being still and favoring His presence over your productivity.

Let's pray.

Father, I pray that you would help us to slow down when we interact with you. A lot of times, Lord, we are like toddlers whose parent is trying to get their attention to tie their shoes or wipe their nose, but we are too busy running around to stop. Help us to stop. Help us to look you in the eye. Forgive us for being too busy for you and for being too familiar with you. Help us to extend forgiveness to others and trust you to heal our pain. We ask for the Holy Spirit today. Lead us and guide us in Jesus' name. Amen.