My Cup Overflows
The Lord is my Shepherd“What has the Lord been teaching you lately?” I asked my dear friend Betty as we walked the 2 miles to the market where we would get a taxi to take us to the school where we would visit her son Patrick. With a radiant smile and sparkling eyes, she answered, “That He is truly my shepherd.” She went on…
“I’ve been reading Psalm 23 for the past 6 months and I still can’t contain the joy that fills me when I read it. Imagine Kierra, the Lord is MY shepherd! He’s my personal shepherd and with Him as my shepherd I never lack. He knows just where to lead me, how to provide for me, and how to care for me – He knows every detail of my life. And for sure, my cup overflows! Every day I am drinking from the overflow of God’s blessings that run down the side of my cup (she took my water bottle to demonstrate how she drinks from the side as the blessings keep overflowing). I don’t know why He keeps blessing me like this – He’s such a wonderful shepherd. In fact, I think I might be His favorite.”
My heart wondered at her words and the glow on her face because from an earthly perspective, none of these words make sense. HIV positive, a single mom, no real source of income, and living in a small mud hut with her aging sick mother and her 3-year old niece (who she’s taken in as her own daughter), Betty spends most days feeling a bit sick and hungry as she faithfully provides testing, counseling, and encouragement to others infected with HIV. Nothing does she lack? Her cup overflows? Overflows with what? I decided to ask.
“Betty, I know that you don’t have much food in your home and you often go hungry. I know that you don’t have a husband to walk this road with and to provide for your children. I know that you feel sick much of the time. So how can you say so joyfully that you lack nothing? What is your cup overflowing with?”
She smiled at me as if she knew a great secret that I should also know by now. “For sure, there are days when there is no food in the home, but I don’t worry. It’s those days that I pray to my God and say, ‘Lord, this is your time. This is your time to come through as my shepherd. It is for you to provide for me today.’ And for sure, He always does. He ALWAYS provides. Sometimes He provides food, but other times He just provides Himself and His love and joy and peace. My cup overflows every day with more love, joy, and peace than I can contain. It overflows with my God; my Shepherd.”
Oh. Thank you Betty for the reminder that with Christ as our shepherd, each of our cups truly does overflow, no matter what circumstances of life we find ourselves in. My cup overflows, and I want to live in joyful gratitude for that. I want to recognize all the gifts that God has lavished on me today to the point where my grateful heart becomes convinced that I too must be His favorite. For that’s the truth. Betty is His favorite and she lives in the light of His favor each day of her life. But I too am loved as His favorite and can live in the light of that favor if I only recognize it each day. It’s true for each one of you as well. He loves you and delights in you more than you can possibly imagine – He loves you as His favorite! May you recognize and drink from the overflow of your cup today, and thank Him for it.
But the truth is that every person in this world is His favorite and many of them will never know it unless we tell them and show them. Millions of people in the world live in unreached areas where there is no church, no Bible in their language, and no possibility for them to hear the name Jesus or know His love. Millions of others eek out heart-wrenching existences in the midst of things like war, child sex-trafficking, and inhumane slums. How will a Cambodian child sold into a brothel ever understand that she is God’s favorite unless we rescue her, love her with God’s pure love, and introduce her to the one who wants to be her Good Shepherd and overflow her cup? How will a Muslim in Qatar or an unreached tribe in Ecuador ever meet Jesus as their all-sufficient Shepherd and source of joy unless someone introduces them? We have an amazing Shepherd in whom we lack nothing and we have a responsibility to help others experience this as well. We are the vessels God often chooses to overflow the cups of others. Will we selfishly keep the blessings that overflow out of our own cups, or will we share these blessings with a world in need? May we share with a heart of gratitude and love.
Gratitude
I read a quote yesterday that said, “Gratitude is being more aware of what we have than what we don’t have.” Can I insert a “Selah” here like they do in the Bible? “Selah” means to pause and think deeply about that. Pause for a minute and let the truth of that quote sink into the depths of your heart.
Betty understands gratitude, and I want to as well. May we live lives of gratitude – for surely, as sons and daughters of the King of Kings, we should live as the most grateful people on earth. Let us testify to the greatness of our God. One of my Kenyan friends commented the other day, “Americans don’t really know how to testify do they?” “No,” I sadly answered, “most of us don’t.” In America, a “testimony” typically refers to the account of how a person met Jesus as their Savior. In Kenya, a testimony is simply the joyful proclamation of what God has done in your life this week, His greatness, and His goodness to you. No one needs a formal setting to “testify” to God’s goodness in their life here. Whether passing on the road, working in the kitchen, drinking chai, attending a staff meeting, or fellowshipping in Church, the people here testify! The gift of life, the pouring rain, the health of their kids, the gift of salvation, the clean drinking water, the grace of God – all are reasons for the testimonies to flow here. And through this stream of testimonies, gratitude also flows.
“I’ve been reading Psalm 23 for the past 6 months and I still can’t contain the joy that fills me when I read it. Imagine Kierra, the Lord is MY shepherd! He’s my personal shepherd and with Him as my shepherd I never lack. He knows just where to lead me, how to provide for me, and how to care for me – He knows every detail of my life. And for sure, my cup overflows! Every day I am drinking from the overflow of God’s blessings that run down the side of my cup (she took my water bottle to demonstrate how she drinks from the side as the blessings keep overflowing). I don’t know why He keeps blessing me like this – He’s such a wonderful shepherd. In fact, I think I might be His favorite.”
My heart wondered at her words and the glow on her face because from an earthly perspective, none of these words make sense. HIV positive, a single mom, no real source of income, and living in a small mud hut with her aging sick mother and her 3-year old niece (who she’s taken in as her own daughter), Betty spends most days feeling a bit sick and hungry as she faithfully provides testing, counseling, and encouragement to others infected with HIV. Nothing does she lack? Her cup overflows? Overflows with what? I decided to ask.
“Betty, I know that you don’t have much food in your home and you often go hungry. I know that you don’t have a husband to walk this road with and to provide for your children. I know that you feel sick much of the time. So how can you say so joyfully that you lack nothing? What is your cup overflowing with?”
She smiled at me as if she knew a great secret that I should also know by now. “For sure, there are days when there is no food in the home, but I don’t worry. It’s those days that I pray to my God and say, ‘Lord, this is your time. This is your time to come through as my shepherd. It is for you to provide for me today.’ And for sure, He always does. He ALWAYS provides. Sometimes He provides food, but other times He just provides Himself and His love and joy and peace. My cup overflows every day with more love, joy, and peace than I can contain. It overflows with my God; my Shepherd.”
Oh. Thank you Betty for the reminder that with Christ as our shepherd, each of our cups truly does overflow, no matter what circumstances of life we find ourselves in. My cup overflows, and I want to live in joyful gratitude for that. I want to recognize all the gifts that God has lavished on me today to the point where my grateful heart becomes convinced that I too must be His favorite. For that’s the truth. Betty is His favorite and she lives in the light of His favor each day of her life. But I too am loved as His favorite and can live in the light of that favor if I only recognize it each day. It’s true for each one of you as well. He loves you and delights in you more than you can possibly imagine – He loves you as His favorite! May you recognize and drink from the overflow of your cup today, and thank Him for it.
But the truth is that every person in this world is His favorite and many of them will never know it unless we tell them and show them. Millions of people in the world live in unreached areas where there is no church, no Bible in their language, and no possibility for them to hear the name Jesus or know His love. Millions of others eek out heart-wrenching existences in the midst of things like war, child sex-trafficking, and inhumane slums. How will a Cambodian child sold into a brothel ever understand that she is God’s favorite unless we rescue her, love her with God’s pure love, and introduce her to the one who wants to be her Good Shepherd and overflow her cup? How will a Muslim in Qatar or an unreached tribe in Ecuador ever meet Jesus as their all-sufficient Shepherd and source of joy unless someone introduces them? We have an amazing Shepherd in whom we lack nothing and we have a responsibility to help others experience this as well. We are the vessels God often chooses to overflow the cups of others. Will we selfishly keep the blessings that overflow out of our own cups, or will we share these blessings with a world in need? May we share with a heart of gratitude and love.
Gratitude
I read a quote yesterday that said, “Gratitude is being more aware of what we have than what we don’t have.” Can I insert a “Selah” here like they do in the Bible? “Selah” means to pause and think deeply about that. Pause for a minute and let the truth of that quote sink into the depths of your heart.
Betty understands gratitude, and I want to as well. May we live lives of gratitude – for surely, as sons and daughters of the King of Kings, we should live as the most grateful people on earth. Let us testify to the greatness of our God. One of my Kenyan friends commented the other day, “Americans don’t really know how to testify do they?” “No,” I sadly answered, “most of us don’t.” In America, a “testimony” typically refers to the account of how a person met Jesus as their Savior. In Kenya, a testimony is simply the joyful proclamation of what God has done in your life this week, His greatness, and His goodness to you. No one needs a formal setting to “testify” to God’s goodness in their life here. Whether passing on the road, working in the kitchen, drinking chai, attending a staff meeting, or fellowshipping in Church, the people here testify! The gift of life, the pouring rain, the health of their kids, the gift of salvation, the clean drinking water, the grace of God – all are reasons for the testimonies to flow here. And through this stream of testimonies, gratitude also flows.
posted by Kierra Higgins at 11:35 AM
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