My Cup Overflows

Part 1

“You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies, You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”
Psalm 23:5

Psalm 23 is a picture of a life submitted to God and to His care. David uses the imagery of a cup overflowing to describe a life brimming over with spiritual fullness. When I hear this passage I am reminded of the wonderful song written by Richard Blanshard entitled “Fill My Cup, Lord”:

Chorus
Fill my cup Lord,
I lift it up, Lord!
Come and quench this thirsting of my soul;
Bread of heaven, Feed me till I want no more
Fill my cup, fill it up and make me whole!

But what exactly does God desire to fill our cup with? And is “fullness” really the objective? It made me begin to contemplate if we should be happy being full or if we should be striving to be overflowing? Having a “full” cup is a wonderful thing. Many people, however, feel limited on how much they can receive due to boundaries placed on them by the size of their container. They rationalize that in order to receive more from God they have to enlarge their capacity to receive, by acquiring a larger glass. Eventually, however, we are still limited in what we can receive because we are nonetheless confined to the boundaries placed on us by our new container. An example of such thinking is found in Luke 12: 16-19:

“The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’ Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and goods. And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’

He had barns filled with grain and other commodities! But once He was full, his ability to receive was limited by the boundaries placed on him by his containers. So he decided to tear them down and build bigger barns in order to enlarge his capacity to receive. This displeased God:

“But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself? This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich towards God.”
Luke 12:20-21

Enlarging our “capacity” to receive was never God’s intention! God’s desire for us is to live a life of “overflow.”

Pastor Scott Burr
http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com/