One Thing is Needful: Week One Review and Accountability

Wow-what a great week this has been studying about Mary and Martha!  This study is very flexible and you can simply do it on your own, but I wanted to share a little with you about how powerful an accountability group (or even partner) can be!   

We (myself and 14 other ladies) have a facebook group where we check in with each other daily. Sometimes it will be to share our thoughts. Other times it may be just to like someone else's post or say we read that day. However, it's important for us to check in everyday-well, Monday-Friday anyway.  Knowing that others are expecting you to post helps keep me on track and in His word!  Besides the accountability, it's also such a HUGE blessing and encouragement to read their posts throughout the day.  We also share praise and prayer requests. 

Just to show you what I mean, here are some of the posts from our group this week:

• When Mary sat at the feet of Jesus, she LISTENED to Him, she LINGERED with Him, and she LOVED Him.
  
  
• She (Martha) had the right idea, she just got distracted & lost focus on what really mattered.
  
  
• I am already seeing in this study that it may not be more that He wants from us, it could be less.
  
  
• Good morning girls! Ok I'm blown away! I guess I knew this was the same Mary that anointed His feet at the Pharisees house and washed them with her tears and dried them with her hair but the Lord just really put it in perspective for me this morning! If you have a Thompson chain the reference 2261 really helped me this morning! She was found at Jesus' feet for instruction, worship, and comfort three times! She knew how special Jesus was and what He personally did for her by saving her even though she was "a sinner". (Luke 7:36) I believe Mary wanted to spend as much time as she could just being in His presence! She knew where her strength, comfort, and knowledge came from! Two words that really stuck out to me were "sat" and "heard". How many times do I just need to stop and listen and actually hear Him speak to me!!
  
  
• Good morning girls! I think it was important for Mary to be at Jesus feet because she was as close as she could be and there wasn't room for distractions to come in between them.
  
  
• My desire is to "sit" today & hear from Him. I've got a million things screaming for my attention so it's easy to be up, not listening. Lord help me to be still & listen to the only voice that matters...
  
  
• "Heard HIS word" also stuck out to me. “Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.” Covey.I thought of this quote and how it's even applicable to Jesus and His word. He doesn't want our response, but he wants our hearts to truly HEAR Him.
  
  
• I want to knock Martha more than myself because Jesus was actually sitting in her house but guess what? He LIVES in mine!!
  
  
•  I am realizing that I had stress because I had everything backwards. Yesterday, I got up at 4 and did my Bible study before anything else. The rest of the day was great because I had a peace with me. My prayer this morning was for God to help me keep him first in my life everyday.
  
  
• Luke used the word "cumbered", which means a hindrance, obstruction, or burden. Martha saw her serving as "cumbersome". God has called me to be a wife, mother, and nurse, among other things. But before all of that, He called me to be a Christian. So many days I gripe about having to do laundry, wash dishes, or go to work. Shame on me for letting my callings get in the way of my praise!
  
  
• When I read this (Luke 10:41) I disected careful to mean hesitant and burdened. However, the Bible constantly reminds us to cast our cares on Him. His strength is made perfect in our weakness. I don't believe we are made to carry these burdens ourselves. When we turn them over to God, He takes them away and replaces them with peace. How wonderful is that! I am bad to worry over decisions and try to plan out every little move. My life would be a lot more enjoyable if I let Him take care of things and was just excited to see how He would work things out.
  

See what I mean?  Accountability, blessings, encouragement-I LOVE my GMG group!!  These ladies are awesome because they are allowing God to reveal things to them through His Word.  

So how do you go about having an accountability group?  The way I did it was simply sent out a FB message to some friends.   Honestly, some of them I didn't even know that well at the time, but felt God had led me to ask them if they wanted to start a Bible Study. I believe we started with around 6-8 ladies and now here we (and a few others) are about 6 years later, probably somewhere around our 10th study. These ladies are now some of my dearest friends!  

My suggestion is to keep the group smaller-I would say 4-8 is really about perfect, but no more than around 15 in one group. That way it's still small enough everyone feels accountable and open to share things.  Even if you don't have a group, then at least ask one other person to help hold you accountable. 

Once you have who you'll be doing the study with, then decide what's the best method for y'all to keep in touch:  Facebook, email, text, phone calls, etc.  Then encourage and equip each other daily!  

If you need any further help or have questions about starting a group on your own, I'd be glad to help.  I know if you've been sitting at His feet this week He has also revealed some things to you!  I'd love to hear about your group or what God has shown you individually this week!