The Cup in Your Hand

Last week, God retaught me the lesson that I need to be filled with more of Him and His Love everyday. Hopefully, this time I actually learned it. But this weekend, I got to go on a retreat, a whole weekend dedicated to letting Him refill me. And He continued to teach me.

If you read what I wrote last week, you know how I compared being filled with God and His Love to a car that is filled with gasoline. Having that quality time with Him is like pulling into the gas station. Now, here's something else to think about. That gas station is full service.

Think about a full service gas station. What do drivers have to do there? They don't have to do anything. All they have to do is tell the attendant what they want, what they need, and allow the attendant to take care of it. All have they have to do is pull into the station. When they pull into the station, the attendant asks them what they need done to the car, and does it. Then they pay the attendant and keep driving.

Being filled with God is really similar. He is a full service God. First we have to take the time and make the effort to spend time with Him. He's waiting there for us. As soon as we get alone with Him, He's ready to come fill us up. He comes to us and waits for us to tell Him what we want and what we need. Once we tell Him, He waits for us to open our hearts to receive from Him. When we do that, He goes to work. He starts filling our hearts and our lives. And it's wonderful.

It's beautiful to know you are full and to be confident that you can continue moving forward until time for the next refilling. It's beautiful to know that you didn't have to expend any energy to fill up. All you had to do was sit back and drink from the cup God holds out to you.

Just like the attendant at the gas station expects payment, God expects something in return to. He asks that you just love Him back. That's all.

Then, you can go out and keep running. Just like a car that leaves the gas station with a full tank can keep driving. You can go out and follow the road God wants you to take. You run the race He has given you. You show people how to get to Him and when it is time, you go back and get refilled. You just make sure that it's before you start running on empty again.

Yep. That's what being filled means.