Do you ever feel pulled in so many different directions at once that you fear that you are about to snap under the strain?
Or, maybe you feel like a pitcher, constantly being poured out of in order to fill others’ cups?
In the book Gifts from the Sea, the author, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, describes woman this way and warns against pouring out of yourself to the point of running dry. She states:
“Eternally; woman spills herself away in driblets to the thirsty, seldom being allowed the time, the quiet, the peace, to let the pitcher fill up to the brim.”
When I consider how I pour out of myself into the lives of others (spouse, children, friends, church family, etc.) it emphasizes to me the importance of refilling the proverbial pitcher. Yet, with so many cisterns in the world from which to draw, how can we choose from which well to fill ourselves?
Romans 15:13 tells how, as we trust in God, he will fill us with joy and peace, and we will overflow with hope. Could you use more joy, peace, and hope in your life? I know that I could. Learn to trust God…and get ready for the flood.
My prayer for you, and me, is the same as Paul in Ephesians 3:16-19.
I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
In both of these passages, the imagery is one of being filled to fullness or overflowing. These are not measured out doses to be drained away before replenishing. He will fill us up completely, full to the point of overflowing. How much better equipped we will be to pour out into the lives of others when we are full of what he provides.
The answer then, is to run to God’s reservoirs!
“But those who drink the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” John 4:14