Martha Martha : A 33 Hours Fast from Worry

FASTING FROM WORRY

A 33-hour fast to lay down worry and sit at His feet

There is a kind of tiredness sleep doesn’t touch.

It belongs to the woman whose mind keeps working long after the house has gone quiet: rehearsing tomorrow, holding everyone’s needs, preparing for what may never come.

We rarely call it worry, because we’ve been trained to call it love. “Responsibility.” Being the one who thinks of everything.

Paying the bills on time. Making sure the car regos are paid. The toilet cleaned, the garden watered, the bottom of the fridge wiped out. Checking our bank accounts aren’t being drained by scams. Finding time to teach our kids good morals and be present, on top of the full-time job. Oh yeah, and fitting in time to FEEL feminine amongst all the chores. Making sure there’s food in the fridge for school lunches. Getting to the vet appointments. And, when you can remember, getting those legs shaved or waxed.

It’s never-ending. We have so many balls in the air at any given time.

Martha would have called it love too.

When Jesus came to her home in Bethany… could you imagine Jesus Christ walking in your front door? I wonder how you’d respond if He did.

Let’s talk about this for a minute. The first piece of scripture I was introduced to, two years ago when I returned to the church after my sobriety gift, was Luke 10:38–42. This is where I met Mary and Martha. The busy bee and the presence pussy, I call them, haha.

When Jesus rocked up, Martha opened her door and gave Him everything she had.

But her sister did something different:

“Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord’s feet, listening to what he taught.” (Luke 10:39 NLT)

Don’t skim past that. In that culture, sitting at a teacher’s feet was the place of a disciple, someone learning to live the way their teacher lived, and it was a place usually taken by men. Mary took it anyway. With a house full of guests, a meal to prepare and a sister rushing around her, she chose to stop. She didn’t explain herself, she didn’t defend herself, and she didn’t help with the bread. She simply stayed close to Him and listened. Jesus was in her living room, and she wasn’t going to miss Him.

Meanwhile Martha, somewhere between the bread, the guests and the preparing, felt her love and passion turn into pressure, and her pressure into resentment. Finally, she went 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.”(Luke 10:40 NLT)

If you haven’t read that part of scripture and you’re a modern woman, YOU ARE MISSING OUT!

Because here’s how Jesus answered her:

“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 away from her.” (Luke 10:41–42 NLT)

He didn’t scold Martha, and He didn’t send Mary to the kitchen. He defended the woman at His feet. Whatever Mary had found by sitting there, listening, receiving before she gave, could never be taken from her. The meal would be eaten and forgotten by morning. What Mary received would stay with her forever.

And that’s where we keep finding Mary all through the gospels: at His feet. Listening here. Falling at His feet in her grief when her brother Lazarus died (John 11:32). Pouring her most precious perfume over His feet in worship (John 12:3).

This fast is about learning to sit where Mary sat.

Worry is a form of meditation. It uses the very same gift as prayer: attention, imagination, the mind returning again and again to one place, only it returns to fear. That means nothing in you needs to be torn out. The capacity that worries is the capacity that prays. Over 33 hours, from Friday evening to Sunday sunrise, you’ll begin turning it back toward God.

Worry lives in tomorrow. When God fed His people in the wilderness, the manna came each morning, enough for that day. Gathered for tomorrow, it spoiled. Worry asks you to carry a day before the grace for it has arrived. This fast teaches you to live where the grace is.

Rather than asking you to stop worrying, it takes you beneath the worry: to what it’s protecting, to where you first learned it, to whose voice it carries, and to what you’ve picked up that was always God’s to hold. Each worry is written, placed in a jar, and given to Him in prayer. On Sunday at sunrise, you’ll wash your face as Jesus told those who fast to do, empty that jar before God, and allow your inner posture to lift.

Then, for seven days, you’ll walk it out with us, because what begins in a weekend is meant to keep working in a life.

You’ll be guided through:

• the story of Martha and Mary in full, broken down verse by verse, as the heart of the fast
• the Worry Map, a practice you’ll keep long after Sunday
• five ways of turning worry into prayer
• heart pulse check-ins through the weekend, emotionally, physically, mentally and spiritually
• scripture in full (NLT), with prayers and affirmations throughout
• seven days of “Walking it out” after the fast

You won’t walk this alone. Your guide comes with an invitation into the Skin • Pray • Love community on WhatsApp, where we fast together, check in through the weekend, and carry one another in prayer.

Martha didn’t have to stop loving. She simply had to come and sit down first.

Come and sit.