Fill Your Vessel
Last week I used 2 pitchers of water to illustrate a message to my youth class about the pouring out of the Holy Spirit. Prior to class, I asked one of the youth to help me, I asked if they would go fill the pitchers.
Since then, I have been thinking about what I did. I haven’t been wondering about using the pitchers of water, but I have been thinking about how I had someone else fill my vessels.
Did you know that you are a vessel?
I hear so much preaching and teaching on how we are “a child of God” (and we are!) but the Bible also says that we are a “vessel of God”…
(2 Corinthians 4:7) “But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.”
What exactly is a vessel you may ask? Well, the pitcher I used for my illustration was a vessel. A vessel is not something used to do something, rather, it is something used to contain something.
Paul has outlined here in the above scripture that the jar that we possess is to reflect God. It isn’t about what we can do but rather what we have.
Many times I find myself doing things for so many people. In my family. In my church. In my community. Don’t get me wrong, “doing things” is a good thing, afterall, didn’t God say “Go ye into the world…”? The problem that I have is that often times I am trying to pour into others with a dried up vessel, because nothing has been poured into me.
This doesn’t work. The saying is true… “you can’t squeeze water from a stone”. Before we can even think about pouring something out, we need to go to the faucet and fill our vessel up. It may have been alright for me to ask one of the youth to fill my pitcher up for youth class but when it comes to our vessel for God – we must be the one who draws from His spring.
I’m reminded of the widow lady and her oil (2 Kings 4), Elisha told her and her sons to go gather empty jars. As they gathered as many as they could, the oil did not stop flowing until every single jar was filled. Even though the miracle appears to be in the oil, it wasn’t. The miracle came, the filling, because the widow lady was obedient.
She brought as many containers as she could so that she would have something to pour out when needed. God is looking for some empty containers to fill, so that when the time is right, He can be poured out.
We have all been given a container by God, how we use it and how often we fill it is up to us. But without God’s filling, all we hold is an empty container. No oil. No miracle. Nothing to pour out when needed.
Does your container need filling today? Bring it and see what God does with your obedience.
BLESSINGS. Laurie
@copyright laurieadams*
**for more of my daily devotions, follow my devotional page on Facebook: womantakingastand or womantakingastand.blogspot
You are right Laurie; we need to be filled by Him and His Word in order to pour out to others. Thank you for the reminder.