My Cup Overflows...?

My cup overflows…?

So many instances in the Bible, people are mentioned as cupbearers to the kings. They hold positions of trust, honor, and protection to the king. They fill the cup for the king and protect it from any poison or contamination. Not only do they bear the cup they also are responsible to taste of the drink with the possibility of death at the other end of a sip to ensure the kings safety. The life and death of the king rides on their shoulders.

I, too, bear a cup. We all do. The difference between this cup and the one I mentioned is that I get to drink of it. I’ve been given a cup by The King. I don’t run and fetch my own drink, my cup is filled by the flowing waters of the God of the universe. It is always good. He is always good. I’ve recently been so filled with what God is doing around me some days it is hard to comprehend. The problem came when I couldn’t believe and I couldn’t accept the blessings that God was giving me. I struggle with believing the lie that says I am not _____ enough to accept this offering. It’s like I go to God and say “fill my cup, Lord” and as He goes to pour into my cup, I flip it over and blessings spill on to the floor. In turn, I am saying, I want your blessing but I can’t receive it. In order to experience the goodness of God, we have to accept it. Our cup can’t overflow if it is tipped upside-down to begin with. A cup can't serve it's purpose if it isn't allowed to be filled - so is our life. How do we expect to live with purpose if we can't accept blessing, healing, pain, joy, and every other gift God wants to sing over us? 

I’ve been so aware of the blessings and healing God is pouring over my friends and family recently, yet I shrink back when it comes turn for the acceptance of what God wants to give me in my own life. How it must pain our Beautiful God to know what we desire most, we run from because it is too good. I hear the words so loudly over my life - Jesus didn’t die so we could mask our pain or shy away from joy. Jesus came so we could have life and have it in abundance. Abundance means to set the cup upright and accept blessings. We are not called to cower under pain, but to rise up knowing our fight is worth something. We are allowed to feel joy, even if it is so much we don’t know what to do. We are all given a cup. One thing we can be sure, God will never run out of ways to overflow our cup, but it is in our hands whether we allow it to spill out as waste on the ground or let our gifts overflow. Taste and see that The Lord is good – hold up your cup upright and let the river of blessings and healing flow over your life. 

"You serve me a six-course dinner
right in front of my enemies.
You revive my drooping head;
my cup brims with blessing!"
Psalm 23:5

Just. Hold. On

#CrescendoCabin

It isn’t ironic that we are currently reading Captivating. A book that is helping us to understand that our true beauty is found most purely when we are still. I love the times in life when we realize truth and God provides us an opportunity to actually experience it at the same time. I’m speechless.

I’ve taken so many trips where I needed a vacation after my vacation. I’m more stressed on the backside of my getaway than I was when I arrived. I needed to detox myself of everything I filled my body and soul with over those few days. This trip was the complete opposite. God has already given me so much that I would have been completely content with just knowing He was there. However, He is working in the year of Immeasurably More so little was not enough for the great work He has put in to motion. I just spent the last weekend with 10 women from my bible study. Not one of which is on the same path as another, same walk of life, same hopes, same dreams. We are all so different and God saw that this was good. He brought us together for the fact that He is giving us a chance to understand others outside of our personal little life bubble. Though we can learn from each other, He has more…so much more. He has intricately woven our lives together, not that we can accomplish our own hopes and dreams but so that we can accomplish His.

Oh, God met us on the mountaintop of Tuckasegee, NC this weekend. When God is present, the limits we place on ourselves are destroyed, walls crumble, and perspective shifts into eternity. We spent hours upon hours talking, laughing, kayaking, rowing boats…flipping kayaks, and just being. One moment, a group of us rowed in our kayaks in the middle of the lake… and just sat there. In that moment, I think I finally realized what beauty is: dependence, joy, hope, love, and undeniable trust. We sat in the midst of stillness. There was no movement around, yet the beauty was so breathtaking we were left speechless. Isn’t that what God wants from us? To stop fighting, to stop questioning, and just dance with Him. I get the image of a child dancing on her fathers feet as he spins her around the room. She may not know the next move of the dance, but she trust him to make it beautiful. God has already offered us the opportunity to dance, we just have to step on His feet and give Him the opportunity to take us through the beautiful dance. We do nothing except hold on. That is beauty. In our stillness, God is then given the opportunity to guide us in the dance He set in motion from the beginning of time. We can’t trust and take the lead at the same time. It is the dance of the fully surrendered, the free, and the captivated who are able to put aside distractions and just be. This is what I realized in the midst of the North Carolina mountains this weekend. While we were still in the midst of the lake, God was stirring up hope for His promises, joy in His faithfulness, and bringing together women to be a voice of community. I honestly, without a doubt, believe this community of women makes God smile. We are living in the days of His favor and I am ready to hold on. I may not know the next move, but I’m ready to dance.