In my first blog of the series, I ask that you consider yourself with sober judgment and decide if you are the pitcher or the glass in the “pouring into others relationship.” So what happens if you’re the glass? What does that mean? When I first came up with the title of today’s blog at the beginning of the series, I didn’t have this thought in mind. It just came to me yesterday when I was running over some ideas for this post.

If you’re still an empty glass, then you’ve most likely been drinking other people’s Living Water rather than your own. You may listen to pastors, teachers, and others and find out what God has spoken to them through His Word, but you aren’t seeking God on your own. Jesus is the Living Water. If you aren’t pursing an active relationship with Him through His Word, prayer, and quiet time with Him, then you are running on empty. It makes sense that you feel the need for others to continually fill you. Remember, it may make sense, but that doesn’t mean it’s okay to continue on being the fillee and never the filler.

With busy lives and hectic schedules, it is tempting to operate in the premise that Sunday Jesus is enough. He’s not. You need Jesus to be an active part of your every day life. You need to see what the scriptures are saying to you specifically, how they guide you and speak into your life and circumstance. Bible studies and worship services are a wonderful addition, but if you are not meeting with Jesus daily, you will never have what you need to get through this life. Only Jesus fills.

Well meaning family and friends can sprinkle some of what they have on you, but soon enough you will be yearning again for a fresh drink. They can pour and pour, so much that you become a drain on them, and still you will expect more. It’s unfair to those who love you.

Here is part of a conversation that Jesus had with the woman at the well as recorded in John 4:

¹⁰ Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water.”
¹¹ “Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? ¹² Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did also his sons and his livestock?”
¹³ Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴ but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
¹⁵ The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water so that I won’t get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.”

Notice in verse 14 where Jesus says that what He gives “will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” What He gives is continual. Beyond salvation, He offers Living Water day after day that will satisfy the deepest need. We think that people and things will somehow fill or complete us. If they do at all it’s only momentary, but soon enough, we are longing for more. What I’ve discovered to be the most transformation truth of my life is that Jesus fills. Jesus completes. Jesus is enough.

So stop sipping on the Living Water of others. Pursue the Living Water on your own. Drink and be filled and never thirst again.

As a first step, go back and read the entire conversation between Jesus and this Samaritan woman when you get a chance. It’s packed with many truths that we, as women, can identify with.

Blessings to you, and as always, I value your feedback. Please feel free to share with a friend.

Lisa

 

We all try to pour from an empty pitcher at times. It’s like trying to be superwoman is baked into our DNA. People ask, so we pour and we pour and we pour until we ourselves are empty. I don’t care who you are or how strong your faith walk with Jesus, you need to continually be filled. I think those with the strongest walk often fall victim to the mentality that they can do it all. You can’t. God can. God will. And He may do it through you, but only when you are filled first.

I know this is an overused analogy, but it’s like riding on a plane with a child. You will be told that if the cabin pressure fails, a mask will drop down. Counterintuitive to what you think, you are told to place the mask on you first – then the child’s. If you pass out, no one will be there to help that child. It’s an overused analogy for a reason, the truth of it. If you’re a mom or wife or business professional or ministry leader or all of the above, you need to be filled in order to fill others and to fill all the roles you are assigned in this life.

We know this, we are told this, but still we keep trying to pour without being filled. Why? Since I’ve been filled and I’ve been empty, I can only look at my own history and try to figure out why I didn’t seek to be filled.

I’ve come up with two reasons:

1) I didn’t believe that the Word of God could fill.
That was my biggest mistake and what led to my own worst seasons. No matter how many times preachers and teachers and speakers would tell me that all that I needed could be found in God’s Word, I didn’t believe them. I had tried and failed and given up. I tried, instead, to walk this thing out on my own. (I still shake my head at myself and my unbelief.) Besides the Word, I didn’t believe Jesus was enough. I kept looking for Jesus plus. I believed that other things could fill me. Always a lie. So my truest issue was belief, what I believed vs. what I didn’t believe.

2) I underestimated how vital it was to continually be filled.
I couldn’t be filled one day a week. I needed Jesus – the Word – daily. That included reading His Word, prayer, and listening. I’m not saying that we have to read ten chapters a day. I tried so many reading plans that left me frustrated. To have some predefined length of material kept me from hearing God. Or if I did sense He was speaking through a particular verse, I had to keep reading past it in order to stay on track. Now, I read whatever I feel led to read. I do keep a normal flow of reading going. Where I leave off one day, I begin the next. Some days I may read ten verses and others two. We have made this so academic that we don’t allow for the Spirit to speak and move. (Maybe more on the reading topic another day.)

The point is: You need Living Water to be pouring water.

Last week I asked you to consider yourself with sober judgment. Are you the pitcher or the glass? If you are a pitcher, this week I want you to take a look at yourself and pray. Are you running around sprinkling a droplet here and there, or are you filled and able to fill others?

Don’t worry glasses, we will get to you next week in the post: Why am I an empty glass?

Blessings to you and yours,

Lisa

 

 

 

 

This question has been on my mind recently: In relationships, am I the pitcher or the glass? Do I pour more often or expect to be filled more often? It’s a question we would all do well to ask ourselves.

While each of us need to be poured into on occasion, the fact is, we need to pour more often. Do we fill our friends and family or drain them? In Romans 12, Paul tells us to consider ourselves with sober judgment. Sadly, I don’t think most people do. It’s far easier to consider others with sober judgment and then soberly judge them. At times it’s healthy to take an inventory of who we are and how we relate to others. Are we growing spiritually (getting filled) and then pouring into others?

This is my challenge to you: Take a look at each of your closest relationships and ask the following questions:

• Do I pour into this person?
  • If yes, what do I pour? Emotional support, spiritual blessings, encouragement, unconditional love, a listening ear, etc…
  • Am I a positive influence?
  • Do I represent Jesus in this relationship?

• Am I a drain on others?
  • Do I expect their time and attention without giving back?
  • Am I a negative influence? Complaining, gossiping, or continually talking about myself?
  • Do I ask for friends to do things for me that I’m not willing to do in return?
  • Am I easily offended?

There is nothing about this exercise that’s comfortable. I think we will all find ourselves to be the pitcher and the glass at various times. But our goal is to be the pitcher more often than the glass. Pray through this. Ask God to open your eyes to your own behavior and expectations.

My goal is to be so full that when I move at all, I splash a little Jesus on the people around me. When I walk by, I want people to think maybe it’s raining. Trust me, I’m far from there, but at least I have a goal. I’m considering myself with sober judgment. That’s the only way change will take place, a reversal of unhealthy patterns in relationships.

 

Blessings to all,
Lisa