Spilling Out of Your Cup

Christian Working Woman Transcript

Thursday, July 05, 2007 - When Your Cup Runs Over, What Spills Over?


Is there some adversity in your life at present? Do you have a situation that is getting to you? Maybe it's a person you work with, or your boss, or the whole job itself. Perhaps it's financial difficulties or a health problem. It could be almost anything. If your cup is being jostled right now, what is spilling out?

If you're not happy with what you see spilling out of your cup from time to time, then you need to get the inside clean, really clean. Turn those adversities into positive movement in your spiritual life. Use them as building blocks. The earlier you begin, the better and the easier it is to face yourself and make changes.

Remember, if you keep going through life, refusing to look at what is spilling out of your cup and get that cup cleaned up, as you grow older those irritating, unpleasant, un-Christlike traits will become more and more entrenched and more and more difficult to clean out. Let me remind you of Romans 5:2-5:

This doesn't mean, of course, that we have only a hope of future joys–we can be full of joy here and now even in our trials and tribulations. Taken in the right spirit these very things will give us patient endurance; this in turn will develop a mature character, and a character of this sort produces a steady hope, a hope that will never disappoint you.

Our cups are jostled to show us what's inside, so that we can develop a mature Christian character. It's rather painful sometimes to have to face up to the mess that's spilling out of our cups, but the sooner we face it, confess it, and ask God to change us, the better equipped we'll be to let God fill our cups with Himself, so that when we spill over, people see the likeness of Christ in us.

Often we use the expression "My cup overflows" when we feel particularly blessed and happy. Well, that's the way it should be–our cup should overflow with good things. But not just when the circumstances are good. Even in the tough times, even when we don't feel like it, even when we can't see what God is doing, even when we are plagued with discouragement or doubts–even then in the midst of the trouble, our cups should overflow with God's goodness.

Yet what is usually true of us? Generally when things are not going good, our cups overflow with complaining, with criticism, with giving up, with negativism. Why? Because we allow circumstances to determine what's in our cup. We are more controlled by the circumstances than we are our trust in God.

Does you cup overflow with good things only when things are going your way? Or does it overflow with God's goodness to you even in the midst of trouble?