Fill My Cup, LOrd

You anoint my head with oil—my cup overflows.”

When the shepherd has brought the sheep to the good pasture land, and it becomes summer, along with the season come pesky gnats and flies that would irritate the sheep. These little critters would get around their eyes and nose and would drive the sheep crazy—if not dealt with, the sheep would run around rubbing their heads in the grass or against the rocks and could easily harm themselves. As a result of this, the shepherd would take oil and pour it over the heads of the sheep and around their noses which would keep the flies and gnats from landing on them—then, after that the sheep can enjoy the green grass and quiet waters and be refreshed and not stressed. The Shepherd has to do this every day.

The counterpart of this for us today is to understand from not only 1 John that tells us we have an anointing from the Lord—the precious Holy Spirit—it brings us to a deeper understanding why Jesus would say to the disciples to tarry in Jerusalem until they would receive the presence and power of the Spirit into their lives. In the Gospel of John, chapters 14-16 we have a long discourse by Jesus, teaching the disciples the importance of having the Holy Spirit present with them on a daily basis, empowering their lives.

It would be so easy in this life to become irritated with the littlest of distractions in our lives. We all could probably point to the irritating gnats or flies that seems to show up in our lives—whether they would be work related, relationship related, or wherever that irritant may come from.

Paul, in Ephesians tells us that we need to be filled with the Spirit. In the original Greek, the words mean to “be-being filled.” In other words, it is not a one-time filling, it is not a one-time touch from the Spirit—it is to be a continual, day in and day out relationship with the Spirit of God. We are trusting Him to work in and through our lives—to help us deal with the things in life that would come our way and try to steal our peace.

Colossians 3 gives us some very interesting insight into what some irritants may be—listen to what Paul writes.

In verse 1-2 he says to “set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on earthly things.”

Verses 5 and following say to put to death such things as sexual immortality, greed, impurity and idolatry. We are to rid ourselves of anger, rage, malice, slander and filthy language from our lips. We are not to lie to one another and we are to put on the new self which is being renewed in the image of our Creator. We are to cloth ourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. We are to bear with one another and forgive whatever grievances we may have against one another as the Lord has forgiven us. We are to over all of this put on love!

Then it says we are to LET THE PEACE OF CHRIST RULE IN OUR HEARTS with thankfulness. We are to LET THE WORD OF CHIRST DWELL IN US RICHLY.

These things cannot happen in our lives if we are not in tune to the presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives on a daily, moment by moment basis. Being in the Lord’s presence, being aware of His presence with us, gives us the momentum and awareness that we need to see how the little irritants of life can get in under our skin and begin to rob us of our peace. The anointing oil of the Lord is there to cover us daily, to protect us from those things that can rob of us what the Lord would desire for us.

The daily awareness of the Spirit helps us to see more clearly. There are so many times when our vision can be skewed by whatever is happening around us or in us. We need the Spirit’s help to see our way clearly—no matter how foggy things may seem at times in our lives.

But how do I gain this kind of daily awareness? How can I sense the Spirit helping me and leading me and guiding me through my day?

It is very simple—prayer. We become aware by spending time in the Lord’s presence. It is just like spending time with someone you care deeply for or about. The more time you spend with them, the more aware you are of their thought patterns, how they view things, what they feel about things etc. You can get to a place where all you have to do is look at their facial expressions or hear the tone of their voice and you know something is up.

With the Lord it also comes by spending time in the Word. We need daily physical food to survive—even so we need daily bread from our Savior to survive spiritually. Why do you think when Jesus was tempted by Satan to make stones into bread that Jesus’ answer to him was, “It is written, Man does not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” Jesus, in teaching the disciples to pray said, “give us this day our daily bread.” He didn’t say weekly or monthly or just every once in a while—daily! When the Lord provided manna in the wilderness to the Children of Israel—they had to gather it daily—knowing that it was the Lord’s daily provision that was sustaining them through it all.

I would imagine today you could think of many little things over your life that have irritated the dickens out of you. Or maybe, you can think of some things today that are under your skin and you just want to fight back in one way or another.

The invitation to us today is that we would allow the Spirit of the Lord to pour oil over us fresh and new today to help us to not let the irritant attach itself to us.

But when we do that, we may ask ourselves—is my cup full? The song we had earlier—Fill My Cup Lord—is a powerful thought we need to hold on to today. Fill my cup Lord, I lift it up Lord—come and fill this longing of my soul—bread of heaven feed me till I want no more, fill it up, fill it up and make me whole.

Perhaps you need your cup to be refilled today. I think this chorus is a perfect way for us this morning to bring our hearts fresh and new to the Shepherd of our Souls, to say, Lord fill me up. Give me a fresh anointing of your Spirit today.

One thing that I think is sometimes important is for us to physically in one way or another open ourselves up—so today, lets sing this chorus together and place our hands open like a cup as a symbol today of filling our hearts and lives anew with the presence and peace of the Spirit of God.