My Cup Overflowing

God fills the cups of our lives – we’ve all had different lives, haven’t we, just like cups – they have different purposes, different styles, and they are different sizes.  (You might notice that mine is broken but then I suppose we all are in a way.)

There are a lot of references to cups in the Bible.  Some of them refer to cups of sorrow, or wrath.  But many of them refer to cups of blessing.  I’d like to talk about those cups.

There’s a song that Ron and I love – it speaks of a cup that is overflowing with God’s blessing.  One of the lines is “I'm drinking from my saucer ‘cause my cup has overflowed.”

What is in your cup, if you're a follower of God?  In the fourth chapter of John, we find this reference to something overflowing – the water of life.  Jesus promised living water, and He said that this living water would flow - welling up to eternal life.  He said that if we ask Him, and if we drink from the water He gives us, we’ll never be thirsty again.  

The things that this world holds are not satisfying.  But things don’t last, do they?  In this world, there are never enough things to fill the cups in our lives – but there’s always enough of God.  He doesn’t hold back His love, His presence, or His promises. 

 John 15:9 (NIV)  If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.  I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 

If we love God and keep close to Him, we will have joy – overflowing.  Our prayers, in Jesus’ name, will yield more joy than our lives, our cups, can hold. 

God will give us love overflowing.  The earth is filled with God’s love.

Psalm 119:64 (NIV) The earth is filled with your love, Lord, teach me your decrees.

God gave the children of Israel joy and laughter.  They were on filled with it.

Psalm 126:2  (NIV) Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, “The Lord has done great things for them.”

And God has done great things for us.  He will give us joy as well, to the point where our cups overflow. 

I expect there are days when you wonder where that joy is – it’s no different with any Christian.  There are days when we don’t feel happy on the surface, but we can have happiness or joy deep within our hearts.  We can have satisfaction, knowing that God is in control of whatever is making us unhappy.  So I guess I’d have to say we can be happy and unhappy at the same time.  He fills our hearts, He fills our cups with joy – we just need to decide to drink of that joy.   

1 Thessalonians 5:16 (NIV) -  Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.

Wonder

Wonder – I wonder – I feel wonder. 

God created wonders – the Grand Canyon, the universe, a tiny flower.

I’m sure you remember the days when, as a child, you felt wonder at things.  We would lie down in the grass and look up at the sky - see the clouds floating by, or the birds soaring high.  And we would be amazed that the birds didn’t fly into each other as they flew in formation.

As the clouds swirled around and changed shapes we tried to pick out a picture or two – was that a dragon, a dog, a castle.  Our eyes were full of the wonder of it all.

That was wonder and that was childhood.  We’re not there anymore, but we still wonder, and we still – if we think about it, feel wonder.  Let’s look at the Bible.  I imagine that Methuselah continued to feel wonder in his world at age 969.

Genesis 5:25 – 27 - When Methuselah had lived 187 years, he became the father of Lamech.  After the became the father of Lamech, Methuselah lived 782 years more and had other sons and daughters.  Altogether, Methuselah lived a total of 969 years, and then he died.

He had a child at over 187 years old – that must have been a cause for wonder.

God designed us to question, and to feel awe and amazement, and if we’re created in His image (which we are), then He must feel wonder too. 

That’s an amazing thought.  Do you think that when God looks at His universe, He feels amazed at what He created?  Here are a few beautiful verses that talk about God’s wonders – the totally amazing awe inspiring created things and miracles.

Psalm 40:5 – David wrote in His prayer

Many, Lord my God, are the wonders you have done, the things you planned for us. None can compare with you; were I to speak and tell of your deeds, they would be too many to declare.

And in Psalm 65:8 David is praising God by saying

The whole earth is filled with awe at your wonders; where morning dawns, where evening fades, you call forth songs of joy.

And there are people in the Bible who wondered, who questioned.   

Luke 24:12  Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away. He wondered to himself what had happened. 

Jesus rose from the dead and Peter wondered how it happened!  And then when He saw the risen Jesus, he must have been full of amazement and wonder.

How about Moses?

Genesis 3 tells us that Moses was tending the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law.  He came to Horeb, the mountain of God and the angel of the Lord appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that, though the bush was on fire, it did not burn up, so Moses decided to go have a look at it.

God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!”

And Moses said, “Here I am.”

“Do not come any closer,” God said. “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.”  Then he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob.” At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at God.

Moses was curious, then afraid.  Can you picture yourself confronted with a burning bush?  That was amazing, but the truly amazing thing was that God spoke to him. 

And that’s something that we can still feel wonder about – He speaks to us in His word.  He tells us the way we should live.  But He also shows us Himself – His character, His love, His forgiveness when He speaks to us in the Bible. 

God showed His children wonders – miracles, signs, burning bushes, the dead rising, the lame, blind and sick healed, and He still shows His children wonders.  If we will stop to look around us – even in nature He shows himself. 

Spring is the season of wonders.  We see the world coming to life again after its cold winter rest – that speaks volumes about the creator of that life.    

Romans 1:20 (NIV) tells us

For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, . . .

Do you ever think about that?  Do you understand the power of God that shows up in the mighty, the solid, the enormous things we see?  Or His creativeness, that we see all the time, around us.

Or do you understand the love of God that shows up so clearly in the beautiful, the peaceful, the tender things in this world?  I believe He gave us all these wonders, so that we might know Him better.  I believe He wants us to know Him better because He loves us and wants us to recognize His wonders.  He wants to show us – because He loves us.

God's Clock

Did you know that God is the master clock maker?  His clock is so different than ours.  His clock is named “eternity.” 

The marks on our clocks measure seconds, minutes and hours. 

But God’s clock is different.  It shows these things – Always on time, no limit to time, always the perfect time.  So, no matter where the hands land on God’s clock, it’s good – it’s the correct time.

God made time for us.  When He made the world, He made time. 

An interesting thing is that the Jewish people marked their days beginning with the evening. 

Remember in Genesis 1:3 (KJV) we read,

“And the evening and the morning were the first day.” 

I like that thought.  If we were to think or our days like that, we would be preparing for the day ahead with rest and prayer.  We would be looking forward, not back. 

But how can we hope to understand a God who is beyond time.  God’s clock is always right.  Sometimes ours run down, the batteries give out, they are slow or fast.  Sometimes ours is messed with – going from one time zone to another, or going from daylight savings time to standard time.

But God is not tied to our clock. 

The Bible says in 2 Peter 3:8 (NIV)

“But do not ignore this one fact beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand and years and a thousand years as one day.“

Remember Esther?   Her story is about time.  My abbreviated version goes like this.

Esther was a Jewish orphan girl, being looked after by her uncle until she became the queen of Persia.

The King deposed his wife for disobeying him and Esther was brought to him – along with a lot of other beautiful women.  He chose her.

The story goes on to tell of a plot by Haaman (the bad guy.)  He planned to have the Jewish people destroyed.  The perfect person to talk to the king about this was Esther.  But she was afraid to go to the king and hopefully save her people until she  listened to her uncle's famous words.  

 “Do not think that because you are in the king’s house you alone of all the Jews will escape. For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” 

Esther 4:13-14 (NIV)

Esther was there at the time God had appointed.  It was His time, not hers, not the king’s, not the uncle’s.  God wanted to protect His chosen people and He appointed the time.

Psalm 31:15 (KJV)   I trust in thee.  I say thou art my God, my times are in thy hand.  

Reflections

As the new year starts, I’ve spent many a minute reflecting on what all happened last year and how fast it all went – have you?

Reflecting, meditating, thinking about – I think some of us do a lot of that, especially as we age. 

2 Timothy 2:7(NIV) Paul says to Timothy, “Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give your insight into all this.” 

If I reflect – look at what the Bible is saying, I believe that God will speak to me through it, as He did for Timothy. 

Meditating is a part of reflecting - part of the dictionary definition of reflecting is “Consideration and evaluation of some subject matter.” That’s basically meditating.  Really thinking about something, picking it apart, analyzing it and having it become a part of you.  

In Joshua 1:8 (NIV) we read  Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. 

Joshua was saying that the people must consider, reflect, meditate on Moses’ teachings – not just to know them, but so that they would be able to do what was instructed by God.

I read something recently that said, “Our brains keep on learning, even when we’re not aware of it.” So maybe there’s hope for us after all.

You may relate to Psalm 119:148 (NIV) where David says,

My eyes stay open through the watches of the night, that I may meditate on your promises.

Now that’s interesting.  I know my eyes sometimes stay open, but am I meditating on God’s promises?  I should be.  Do you ever think about a scripture when you can’t go to sleep?  It’s calming, but mostly it’s calming to know that God is awake with you.

I love reading quotes by little kids – I read this letter to God the other day.  Christopher wrote

Dear God, who’s in charge when you are off duty? 

It’s cute, only because we know God is never off duty.  In the late watches of the night, when we’re tired and hurting and can’t go to sleep, when we wake in the morning, on weekdays, on weekends – God is never off duty.  So, we can talk to Him and meditate on the answers in His book. 

I loved this letter to God from Elliott. 

Dear God, I think about You sometimes even when I'm not praying. (Elliott)

Friends aren’t friends only when they make an appointment to visit, they are friends always.  God is our best friend - let’s think about Him – let’s reflect on Him - even when we don’t have our eyes closed, and our hands folded to pray – even when we’re not talking to Him.

To reflect on God is to think about Him, to meditate on Him, and to make Him a part of our every moment because He’s right there – every moment.

Happy New Year

It’s the new year – I hope you all had a nice Christmas, we did for sure.  But this morning I woke up thinking that ..

Even though our world has tried very hard to take Christ out of this season, I expect that not one of us could escape without thinking just even a little bit about the Christ Child, the one who came to earth and was born in a lowly manger.

When I think of the manger, probably a dirty place, probably cold and unpleasant, I’m amazed.

I’m amazed that, as we look at Christmas cards, at the pictures we Christians paint of that tiny baby lying there, they seem so beautiful.  The pictures in our head are the same – when we see Jesus in that stable, He makes it come alive.  He makes it into something more than it was.

And in the same way Christians look at the cross of Jesus as something that has worth, not as something the world sees, but as the means for God to show His mighty love for us.  When we look at the man on the cross He makes it into something more than it was.

God does that for us as well.  When He is in our lives, He makes us more than we ever were.  I pray that will be true for each one of us this year, that we’ll let Him make us more.

Love, Diane

Emotions

Are you thankful that you’re able to experience pain, happiness, sadness, and concern for others, or fondness, freedom, peace and love – all of those emotions?

In one of his books, C.S. Lewis describes how a sunset evokes a certain emotion or reaction.  He says, “Somehow, we find that everything seems to stir something in our soul.” 

Recently, the last several months, I’ve felt that way.  With some health issues, my emotions have been close to the surface.  But as they pass I’ve realized what a blessing they are. 

Feelings and emotions began with God’s original design for man. He made us in his own image.  He designed us so that mountains would enchant us, or a blue sky might calm us, a baby might make us feel protective, or a child’s question would make us laugh. He designed us so that injustice would make us angry, and another person’s pain would give us feelings of compassion.

When we consider that God created us in His image, we can be certain that God has emotions as well. 

There are two wonderful things concerning God and emotions:

First, He understands our emotions (since He created us with the capacity to feel them),

And, second, His own emotions are perfect, because He is perfect.

The Bible has many references to God’s emotions.  Here are a few – there are many more

Anger – Wrath

Romans 1:18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness,

Compassion 

Psalm 135:14 -  For the Lord will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants. 

Grief

Luke 19:41  As He (Jesus) approached Jerusalem and saw the city, he wept over it

Love

Deuteronomy 7:9  Know therefore that the Lord your God is God; He is the faithful God, keeping his covenant of love to a thousand generations of those who love Him and keep his commandments.

Joy

Zephaniah 3:17 The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves.  He will take great delight in you: in his love He will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.    

I love that!  God takes delight in us and I’m convinced that it’s okay to be happy.  Following Christ should not give us permanent sober faces – I don’t believe for a minute that Jesus was always grim. 

As we read the gospels – if we were to try to visualize Jesus standing there – there are times that we’d likely see a smile on his face, or even a grin.  For instance, when he was talking about John the Baptist.  He said to the people, “Hey what did you come out to see (when you were looking for John,) a reed shaking in the wind?  In other words, did you think this guy in the animal skins, eating locust, would be a weakling?  No, if you came looking for a prophet – that’s what he was, and more than that. 

On the other hand, it’s okay to be unhappy as well.  Jesus was.  Remember He wept, He was angry, He sweat drops of blood – there were so many unhappy times for our Savior.

When we have a tragedy in our lives or when things aren’t going well, it’s okay to be NOT okay. 

When - if you're like me, the emotions are vivid, you might say to yourself , “It’s alright.  Be strong.  Look on the bright side.”  

But that doesn’t always work and sometimes you just want to cry, “There is NO bright side” don’t you?

But then the Holy Spirit says, “Go to your Father and let him handle what you’re unable to handle alone.”  That’s the way of children, and I am God’s child.

God has plans for your emotions.  He is totally okay with how you feel and the amount of feeling you feel.  And He has a plan for all that. 

One plan is that we be thankful that we have feelings at all.

Another is that we bring the feelings to God in total honesty. 

If your feelings are negative, take them to God.

If your feelings are positive, take them to God.

Because the truth is that all of them were created by Him – we just sometimes mess with them and turn them up-side-down.

God has given you power, love and self-control in order to deal with your emotions.  Remember that God has not given us the spirit of fear, but the spirit of self-control, it means we can control our emotions. God's power lives inside of us.

2 Timothy 1:7 (GNT) For the Spirit that God has given us does not make us timid; instead, his Spirit fills us with power, love, and self-control.





And God is really okay with weakness – because that’s where his power shines through.

2 Corinthians 12:9 - But He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

I pray that this little rambling may be helpful to you.today.  Remember your Father loves you! 

The Lesson of the Rest

Rest – skip a beat, wait a minute, sit down, take a breath, take a break, ease up, let go.

Have you ever – (I know you have) been climbing a hill, walking a path, cleaning, cooking, building, raking leaves – and at one point you just need a rest?

How do you know when that time comes?  Some of us do know and are willing to put down our tools or our walking sticks and stop what we’re doing, but some of us don’t.  And for those people, it takes something out of their control to force it on them.  Maybe, age?

Some of us know - on a physical level when it’s time to sit down, but do we know the need to rest on an emotional level?  Do we know when it’s time to take a breath?

The other morning, I woke early – been doing a lot of that lately, and my mind was in a turmoil, wondering, yes worrying, about the dental appointment I had scheduled for that day.  I badly needed a tooth that had broken off, pulled and was struggling with that problem.  I was worried that not pulling it would cause other problems – there was a lot of decay in the roots. 

And then I worried that pulling it would not be good because of other things going on with my health right now.  Well you get the picture – this surgery was optional, but on some levels it wasn’t.

Boy I was really worrying myself into an emotional turmoil.  Bet you’ve probably done that too.

That’s when I got up, took my blanket into the living room and sat down to read and give my worries a rest!  I wanted to focus on something else.

I picked up the book – my current favorite, “God Still Moves Stones”, by Max Lucado, and began at a new chapter.  Mr. Lucado uses scripture abundantly and God always speaks to my heart with this man’s words.

Funny thing --- although the chapter had nothing whatever to do with pulling teeth, or even worry, I felt relieved.

It was a rest – a break, a laying down of the burden, and I believe God was pleased.

Sometimes we think that a formal prayer, asking God to take away the worry or pain, or problem is the only way for God to work.  But, as I read, I felt less bothered. 

I wonder if one really good way to release those troublesome thoughts is only to focus on God, focus on his nature, be with Him and, yes, rest in HIM.

I chose not to follow my thoughts about the situation -- and that’s not bad.  The current trend is to say we need to voice or vent our thoughts and worries.  They say it’s unhealthy to hold it in.  But giving your thoughts over to God’s word is not holding it in, it’s more like handing it over, laying it down.  (although, if you’re like me, you’ll most likely pick it up again at some time.)  But for now it was time to rest.

There’s a musical application to this that I thought of that morning.  What if our songs and melodies never had a rest? 

We’d have long notes and short notes, but never time to take a breath, never a chance for the music to seep in, never a chance to really feel it.  The sound coming from the instrument or voice might even be beautiful, but I don’t think it would impact your heart.

Sometimes we need a rest, and that rest can always be found in the presence of the One who rested on the 7th day, the one who hears our struggles and always hears our hearts. We can always find rest in His loving arms. So when we look at Him and listen to what He has to say about anything, we can find rest in Him.

Matthew 11:29 (NIV)- Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

"Take my yoke," Jesus said, He meant - take my teaching, be like me, and then learn from Me. That’s where we'll find our rest.