How to Fill a Cup
Illustration
by Staff

The Old Testament psalmist said: "My cup runneth over!" And that's a wonderful thing for anyone to be able to say. But there is an implication here. The implication is that the cup had been held open-side-up under a flowing stream. A cup isn't going to fill if it is bottom-side-up on a closet shelf somewhere. The stream may be flowing abundantly, but the inverted cup is only a roof that turns it away.

When we come to worship, we bring our cups; and in worship we turn them upright and hold them firmly under the stream of God's outpouring goodness. So let's do this. Let's align our lives to receive what God is trying to give. Let's take our cups and lift them up to the Lord as though we expect them to be filled. It is an act of faith to do this; but then, this is the way faith ought to act, isn't it? If we bring our cups to the Lord and hold them up before him, I strongly suspect that in due time we can say as the psalmist did: "My cup runneth over!"

The psalmist said this as though suddenly surprised to discover how utterly full that cup was. So, as we lift up these cups of ours and hold them there, perhaps we too will have the joyous surprise of discovering how wonderfully full they are. This is worship - the time of the uplifted cup.

CSS Publishing, Lima, Ohio, by Staff