TIME TO GET YOUR BUCKET!

Isaiah 12:2-3 NIV Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The Lord, the Lord himself, is my strength and my defense; he has become my salvation.” With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.

As I was reading this verse I imagined lowering a bucket down into a deep well and then hauling it back up to appreciate the joy of tasting the sweet cool water. It occurred to me we wouldn’t go with a teaspoon or a mug to the well, we’d need a big bucket to draw out as much water as we could and on a hot day we’d want to pour some over our heads to cool down.

There are days when we need the cool refreshing water of the Word, of the Spirit of God Himself to pour into us and over us to refresh our weary souls. When life has knocked us about, when fears and doubts bother us, those are the times we need to go to our well of salvation and draw out whatever we have need of, to draw out His peace, His joy, His strength and let His love pour over us, to keep things in perspective.

It’s similar to the picture in Psalm 23 when David reminds us the Lord has spread a table before us and on that table is everything abundantly provided for our blessing and welfare. It’s the table where our cup is brimming over and overflowing with all God wants us to have, but we have to do something.😊

We need to come to the table by faith to receive God’s blessings, to take off the table the desires of our hearts, to experience the overflowing cup of blessing. We need to go the well of our salvation and make the effort to let down our bucket so we can draw out from it all the good things wrapped up in our salvation through Jesus.

We may all need some refreshing today (I know I do), so let me encourage you to sit with the Lord for a little while and with joy know you can draw out some refreshing water, and don’t go with a teaspoon or a mug, go with a big bucket and let Him fill it up.😊 In Jesus name. Amen.

Photo by Pavlo Semeniuk on Unsplash

WHAT ARE WE HOARDING?

John 1:1-4 NLT In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God. God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone.

I read a Snoopy quote the other day and it said this, “I’m not a hoarder, I’m a ‘This Might Be Useful Later’ Specialist.” That made me chuckle because I am a bit of a hoarder, and when I do finally throw something away, I soon discover I should have kept it after all because I need it! I wonder if that happens to you too?😊

There is something though which we should be hoarding in our hearts, and that is the word of God. When we store it inside us the Holy Spirit can then bring it back to our minds when we need it, when we’re maybe in a tricky situation, or we need to encourage someone else.

God says in His word that His words are Spirit and life, that they are health to all our flesh, and that they direct our paths. The Holy Spirit goes on to say, 2 Timothy 3:16 NLT All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do what is right.

Scripture also reminds us that death and life are in the power of the tongue and that what is in our hearts will come out of our mouths, so if we have hoarded God’s word in our hearts guess what will come out? It’s like when you squeeze an orange, the juice squirts out.😊 If somebody squeezes you and me I wonder what comes out? If I’m honest it’s not always the right thing!

So this is to encourage us all to remember how important it is to hoard and store up the right things, good memories, good thoughts, good attitudes, but most importantly the Word of God itself because Jesus is The Word and the more Word we have, the more of Jesus we have. I like that, don’t you?😊 Amen.

Photo by Abdullah Raafat on Unsplash