Overflowing

"Help, it's overflowing!"

If you have ever rented, bought, or lived in a house or apartment you have probably heard or said these words. And it's usually not a good thing. Everything from toilets to washing machines, from sinks to chocolate fondue makers, when something overflows, it's messy. And where there is a mess there is something that has to be cleaned up.

When one of my daughters was just old enough to get the refrigerator door open she made herself a bowl of cereal one morning. The bowl was definitely overflowing with cereal, and also overflowing with milk. But she kept on pouring, and the milk kept on overflowing, overflowing out of the bowl, overflowing onto the table, overflowing onto the floor.

When I asked her what she was doing, she simply replied “I’m making a big bowl of cereal”, and she kept pouring. What I thought she was making was a really big mess. That wasn’t a good overflow.

But maybe not everything that overflows is bad, maybe there can be some goodness in messy overflowing. The 23rd Psalm is one of the most beloved and often quoted Psalms in Scripture. And while it is many times quoted at a funeral, the themes in this Psalm are really for our day to day living right now.

"You anoint my head with oil, and my cup overflows" (Verse 5).

Think about this image of an overflowing cup for a moment, and imagine your life to be the cup. Sometimes it seems your life might be overflowing with all sorts of messy, nasty stuff. And sometimes that may be the case. Life is not always clean and neat.

But I think that the overflowing mentioned here is something else, something that is always there in abundance, and maybe something that we occasionally take for granted. I think this is referring to God’s provisions. Read Psalm 23 and see the divine provisions of God with us (verse 4), God caring for us (verse 1) God leading and guiding us (verse 3), God restoring and refreshing us (verse 3), God comforting us (verse 4), God feeding us (verse 5), God anointing us as His children with His Spirit (verse 5) God providing for us (verse 2-5), God’s love pursuing us (verse 6), and God’s promise of everlasting life for us (verse 6). Wow, to be transformed by Psalm 23 would be to understand and rely on God as our main source and security. To be transformed by Psalm 23 would be living this life knowing that first and forever we belong to God’s family (God’s household).

That’s a lot to fill your cup with!

Thinking about the goodness and the mercy of God creates an overflowing of these attributes in your life. That's why the Apostle Paul said to think about these beautiful and wonderful things in his letter to the Philippian church:

“Whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy- think about these things” (Philippians 4:8).

 All of our cups are overflowing with something. Live your life in the overflow of God’s love today. So, what is your cup overflowing with?