January 14

“That way, we begin with an empty glass and anything in it will cause us to feel we’re on the way to being filled rather than emptied.....I understand now why  I’ve battled with feeling deprived.”  Me, 1/12 and 1/13 devotionals

As I reread the devotionals I’d written the past two days God opened up my understanding even further concerning this whole imagery of being empty and deprived.  When my glass is full of ME anything taken from the glass is taking away part of me or something that I feel I need.  This explains why I feel deprived so often even though I’ve been concentrating on gratitude by writing down daily for the past six weeks five things for which I am grateful.   When you’ve done all the work yourself and then someone comes along and eats some of the fruit and especially if they don’t thank you, it’s logical to feel put out in some way.  But even if all the work is done by someone else merely using your field, you may still feel the need to hoard the fruit for fear there won’t be enough left for you.  So how much better to see even the field as belonging to God.  He invites everyone to come and eat from His field.  Only the selfish could resent sharing the field.  Using my first illustration of the glass, then, I must acknowledge that the glass also belongs to God.  Then when He fills it with His Holy Spirit, even a tiny drop upon my lips will quench my thirst.

“Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God?  You are not your own; you were bought with a price.  So glorify God in your body.”  1 Corinthians 6:19, 20