Cups

My husband and I aren’t big collectors of things. But one thing we always seem to gravitate toward when we’re in gifts shops or department stores is coffee mugs. Coffee mugs to use at home. Coffee mugs to take on the go. Big ones. Small ones. Different styles and colors. We love them all. I keep telling him we have to build a bigger kitchen just to fit all the mugs we’d like to own!

But we don’t buy mugs just to say we have a lot of mugs and to display them. We get them with the intention of using them. As beautiful as they all are, they are only useful to us when they are filled - preferably with coffee or hot tea, please! A filled cup is my happy place.  

And just as my filled coffee mug is useful to me, so is a filled ‘cup’ in the Lord’s Hands. His ‘cup’ being a human heart. How beautiful are all His cups. They, too, come in a variety of sizes and colors and shapes and styles. Some are like chalices. Some are like long bottles. Some are like mason jars. And some like to-go mugs. They are all precious, beautiful, and unique. They each are made to carry out a specific purpose. 

And they each are useful 
when filled. 
But not filled with just anything! 
When they are filled with Wine, with Living Water, with His Spirit, with Him!

1 John 4:19 says, “We love because He first loved us.”

What this means in terms of our ‘cups’ is: we can only give out what He puts in. We are empty cups that can not fill ourselves, and the life-giving Drink can only come from One Source: Him. See, it’s actually impossible to really love anyone with a godly love without God first putting that love in our hearts. It’s only after we receive from Him that we can be poured out and give to others.

What I have noticed in this world is a lot of frustrated cups. Many people want to change the world and see the Kingdom of God advance. But I’m wondering if they are missing this basic spiritual principle. They are busy pouring out, but not taking time to get filled up. Their frustration worsens as time goes on - as they continue in their own strength and striving - because you can’t give what you don’t have. 


Remember, a filled cup is always more useful than an empty one.


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