by Calven Celliers
Consider for just a minute that you are holding a cup of coffee and someone comes along and bumps into you, making you spill your coffee everywhere. If I then asked you, “Why did you spill your coffee?” you may very well be irritated and tempted to reply, “Well because someone bumped into me, of course!” But another way of looking at it is that you spilled coffee because there was coffee in your cup. Had there been tea in the cup, you would have spilled tea. Whatever is inside the cup, is what will spill out. Now think about what happens when life comes along and bumps you; it stands to reason that whatever is inside of you will come out of you. It’s easy to fake it, until you get rattled.
Today I’d like for you to reflect on the question, “What’s in my cup? When life gets tough, what spills over?” If the wrong kind of stuff spills over, then realistically you have to consider that you have been filling yourself up with the wrong kind of stuff. I am constantly challenged to be intentional about spending time with God, allowing Him to fill those desperately empty places inside my soul with all the good stuff He has to offer. Otherwise, the world will fill those gaps up with anything but good stuff.
In the Gospel of Matthew 12 Jesus put it like this, “34 …For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. 35 A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.” (Matthew 12: 34 & 35NIV)
Jesus stresses that what you say is an accurate indicator of what is in your heart. If your words bless and encourage others, they give evidence of a compassionate heart. If you often share the good news about Christ, you demonstrate a heart that is grateful for your own salvation. When others are in a crisis, do they know they will find peace and comfort in your words? Do you frequently and spontaneously offer prayers for others? Do your words and the manner in which you say them reveal a patient heart? All of these behaviours indicate a heart that is like the heart of the Father. Or do you often regret your words? Are there people even now who are hurt or angry because of something you have said? Do you enjoy gossip? Do you tend to criticize others? Do you feel that you are not responsible for what comes out of your mouth when you are angry? Does your mouth spew negativity, grumbling and complaints?
Having a full cup takes dedication. I want to encourage you to set aside time throughout the day to let the Lord love on you. If we are not allowing God to first fill our cup, our human nature is to strive to fill it in other ways. But if we feast on God’s Word and hide it in our hearts, meditating on it, then our responses to people and situations will be a great deal more graceful and representative of the God we love.
Let’s pay close attention to what spills out of us when we’re “bumped”.
What’s filling YOU up today?
God bless,
Calven
This is lovely, Calven. Thank you for the reminder….I will certainly be meditating on this. 😉