Are You Too Busy for God?

Are You Too Busy for God?

An Elaborate Devotion for Busy People

Opening Stillness (1 Minute)

You are too busy to read this.

That is what you are thinking. That is what your calendar is saying. That is what the voice in your head is screaming as it runs through the mental checklist of what comes next. You have fifteen unread messages, a meeting in twenty minutes, a deadline that passed yesterday, and a body that has been running on adrenaline for so long that rest feels like a foreign country.

And yet—you opened this. Some part of you knows that the busyness is not working. That the more you do, the less you feel. That the treadmill is speeding up and you are not sure how to step off without falling.

So for one minute, do not step off. Just slow down. Let your shoulders drop away from your ears. Let your jaw unclench. Let your thoughts stop sprinting. You do not have to solve your schedule right now. You only have to admit that you are tired, and that the God you are too busy for is not too busy for you.

Breathe. He is here, even in the chaos. Especially in the chaos.

The Anchor Scripture

Luke 10:38–42 & Mark 6:31 (NIV)

"As Jesus and his disciples were on their way, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked, 'Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!'

'Martha, Martha,' the Lord answered, 'you are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her.'"

"Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, 'Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest.'"

Part 1: The Badge of Busyness

(2–3 Minutes)

We wear busyness like a medal.

Ask someone how they are, and listen for the answer. "Swamped." "Crazy right now." "Running on fumes." We say it with a half-smile that is supposed to look like endurance but often looks like exhaustion. We have turned overwhelm into a status symbol. If you are not busy, you are not important. If you are not overwhelmed, you are not trying hard enough.

But busyness is not a fruit of the Spirit. It is not listed next to love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Busyness is not a virtue. It is often a vice dressed in productivity clothing.

And here is the subtle danger: busyness is the enemy's favorite distraction. He does not need to get you to renounce your faith. He only needs to get you too busy to practice it. He does not need you to hate God. He only needs you to have no margin for God. A soul that is too full of noise has no room for the still, small voice.

Martha was not sinning. She was serving. She was doing a good thing—hosting Jesus, preparing a meal, making things comfortable. Her busyness was religious busyness. It looked like devotion. It felt like responsibility. But it had become a prison of her own making, and she was angry that her sister would not join her in the cell.

Reflect: How much of your busyness is "Martha busyness"—good things that have become god things? How much of your schedule is filled with activities that look impressive but are slowly suffocating your soul?

Part 2: When Busyness Becomes a Drug

(3–4 Minutes)

Busyness is addictive.

It gives us an identity. It gives us an excuse. It gives us a way to avoid the uncomfortable questions we do not want to face. If I am busy, I do not have to deal with my grief. If I am busy, I do not have to examine my marriage. If I am busy, I do not have to sit in silence and hear what God might say about the direction of my life. Busyness is anesthesia. It numbs the pain by keeping us in constant motion.

But anesthesia is not healing. Motion is not progress. And a full calendar is not a full life.

The psalmist wrote: "Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10). The command to be still is not a suggestion for monks. It is a prescription for human beings who have forgotten how to stop. The word still in Hebrew is raphah—to let go, to release, to drop, to cease striving. It is the word used for a warrior dropping his sword. It is the surrender of someone who realizes that the battle is not theirs to fight alone.

When was the last time you were truly still? Not scrolling. Not planning. Not multitasking. Just still. Present. Awake to the moment and to the God who inhabits it.

If you cannot remember, you are not living. You are surviving. And God did not create you to survive. He created you to abide.

Reflect: What is your busyness helping you avoid? What silence are you filling with noise? What would happen if you stopped moving for one hour—really stopped?

Part 3: The One Thing Needed

(3–4 Minutes)

Jesus' words to Martha are gentle but devastating:

"You are worried and upset about many things, but few things are needed—or indeed only one. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Only one thing is needed. One.

Not a clean house. Not a perfect meal. Not an impressive ministry. Not a completed to-do list. Not a successful career. Not even a well-organized church event. One thing: sitting at the feet of Jesus. Listening. Being present. Choosing relationship over production.

Mary's choice was not passive. It was active. It was spiritual resistance in a world that demanded performance. She chose the one thing that could not be taken from her. The meal would be eaten and forgotten. The conversation at Jesus' feet would shape her soul for eternity.

We treat time with God like a luxury item. Something we will get to when the important things are done. But Jesus says it is the one thing needed. It is the foundation. It is the fuel. It is the compass. Without it, everything else is just motion without direction. Noise without melody. Work without meaning.

And notice: Jesus does not rebuke Martha for working. He rebukes her for being worried and upset. Her busyness had stolen her peace. Her service had become a source of resentment. She was doing the right thing with the wrong heart, and the wrong heart made the right thing wrong.

Reflect: Have you been treating time with God as optional? Have you been serving Him without sitting with Him? What would it look like to choose the "one thing" today, even if everything else remains undone?

Part 4: Jesus Was Not Too Busy

(3–4 Minutes)

This is the part that should humble us.

Jesus—who had three years to save the world, who was surrounded by desperate crowds, who was being hunted by religious leaders, who had more to do in a day than any of us will have in a lifetime—was not too busy.

Mark 6:31 says that Jesus and the disciples were so overwhelmed by people "coming and going" that they did not even have time to eat. So Jesus said, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest."

He withdrew. He rested. He created margin. He said no to the crowds so He could say yes to the Father. If the Son of God needed to step away from the work to be with the Father, what makes you think you do not?

Jesus' life was marked by rhythm, not frenzy. He worked hard. He taught, healed, confronted, and served. But He also disappeared to mountains. He slept in boats. He attended weddings. He wept at graves. He ate meals with friends. He lived at a human pace in an inhuman demand, and He invites you to do the same.

The lie you believe is that God needs your busyness. That if you slow down, His kingdom will suffer. That your exhaustion is the price of faithfulness. But Jesus never asked for your exhaustion. He asked for your abiding. "Apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). Not "Apart from me you can do less." Nothing.

Your busyness is not impressing God. It is emptying you.

Reflect: If Jesus needed rest and solitude, why do you believe you do not? What would it mean to give yourself permission to withdraw, even when the crowds are still coming and going?

Part 5: The Cost of Constant Motion

(3–4 Minutes)

There is a price for being too busy for God. And you are already paying it.

Your body is paying it in exhaustion, inflammation, and the slow erosion of health. Your mind is paying it in anxiety, rumination, and the inability to be present. Your relationships are paying it in absence, irritability, and the loneliness of being physically near but emotionally elsewhere. Your soul is paying it in dryness, distance, and the quiet despair of forgetting what it feels like to be loved by God.

Hosea warned God's people: "You are destroyed, Israel, because you are against me, against your helper" (Hosea 13:9). They were not destroyed by enemies. They were destroyed by their own frenzy. Their own self-sufficiency. Their own refusal to rest in the God who wanted to help them.

Busyness is not just a scheduling problem. It is a theological problem. It is the belief that you are your own savior. That the world depends on you. That God is a consultant you call when you have time, rather than the source from whom all time flows.

And the irony? The more you try to do without God, the less you actually accomplish. You are busy with many things, but you are effective at few. You are tired from the labor, but the fruit is small. You are running hard, but you are not sure you are running in the right direction.

Reflect: What is the cost of your busyness? What has it taken from your body, your mind, your relationships, your soul? Are you willing to let that cost continue, or are you ready to change?

Part 6: How to Unbusy Yourself for God

(3–4 Minutes)

You cannot think your way out of busyness. You must build your way out of it.

The Sacred Hour. Choose one hour this week that is non-negotiable with God. Not five minutes squeezed between emails. One hour. Protect it like you would protect a meeting with your boss. Because He is your Boss.

The Daily Margin. Build fifteen minutes of buffer between appointments. Do not fill it with your phone. Fill it with breath. With silence. With a short prayer. Margin is not waste. It is where God speaks.

The Ruthless No. You cannot say yes to everything and yes to God. Every yes to something is a no to something else. Practice saying no to good things so you can say yes to the best thing.

The Phone Boundary. Turn off notifications for one hour a day. Not because technology is evil, but because it is designed to keep you busy. Reclaim your attention. It belongs to God.

The Sabbath Practice. One day in seven, stop. Do not catch up. Do not get ahead. Rest. Play. Worship. Be with people you love. The Sabbath is not a suggestion. It is a command because God knows you will destroy yourself without it.

The Mary Moment. Once a day, sit at Jesus' feet for ten minutes. No agenda. No prayer list. No Bible study plan. Just presence. Just listening. Just being with the One who made you.

Part 7: A Prayer for the Too-Busy Heart

(2–3 Minutes)

Read this prayer as a cancellation of appointments. Let it be the moment you clear the calendar of your soul.

Lord, I am too busy.

I confess it. My calendar is full, my mind is racing, and my soul is gasping for air. I have turned busyness into a badge, productivity into an idol, and exhaustion into a proof of my worth. I have been worried and upset about many things, and I have neglected the one thing that matters.

I have treated You like an appointment I can reschedule. Like a task I will get to when the important things are done. Like a luxury for people who have more time than I do. Forgive me.

You are not a task on my list. You are the air I breathe. You are not a meeting I attend. You are the life I live. You are not a project I manage. You are the source of every project, every breath, every moment.

I choose the better thing today. I sit at Your feet. I turn off the noise. I drop the sword of my own striving. I let the many things wait while the one thing happens. I choose presence over production. Relationship over results. Being over doing.

Teach me to rest. Teach me to withdraw. Teach me to say no. Teach me that the world will not collapse if I stop, because You are holding the world—and You are holding me.

I unbusy my heart for You. I clear the clutter. I make space. I create margin. Not so I can do more for You, but so I can be more with You.

I am Yours. Not my schedule's. Not my ambition's. Not my culture's. Yours.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

Closing Blessing

(1 Minute)

Go now, not to do more, but to be more. You do not have to earn God's presence with your productivity. You do not have to impress Him with your exhaustion. You only have to stop long enough to remember that He is here.

May the Lord teach you to be still and know that He is God.

May He free you from the tyranny of many things to choose the one thing that lasts.

May He give you the courage to say no, the wisdom to rest, and the grace to abide.

And may you discover that the most productive thing you can do today is sit at His feet.

You are not too busy for God. You are just busy enough to need Him desperately.

Return to this devotion whenever the calendar starts screaming. The one thing is still waiting. And it will not be taken away from you.