Pause for a minute. Take a comfortable seat and allow your mind to wonder back to Old Testament times. It was rough to say the least. Idolatry was rampant, and rather than worshiping the One True Living God, people worshiped just about anything. They worshiped the sun, moon, and the stars. They made idols out of medal or wood and worshiped those as well. They were totally in spiritual darkness. Farming back then was a matter of survival. There were no local grocery stores or hospitals, and the notion of convenience was a foreign concept. Women often walked long distances to draw water from wells and carried it back to their families. Those who had a way to trade lived in small cramped villages, but the poor had to sometimes sell themselves into slavery if they had no other source of income. The circumstances of earlier Biblical times were harsh. Most people couldn’t contemplate what it would mean to have a dream in their hearts and to actually live to see it come to pass.
In Isaiah 43, God is speaking to His people through His prophet, Isaiah. Reading this chapter, it’s apparent that God had to remind them of who He is, because their minds had been carried away with fear and worry. One of the defining characteristics of God’s people, the Israelites, is that God chose them to be His people. They promised to worship the One True Living God only, but the Old Testament reveals that they were also a people of vacillating loyalty. Hot for God one minute and cold towards Him the next. Often, they abandoned their trust in Him and joined in with those who worshiped idols. This brought about devastating consequences, because they were vehemently attacked by satan when they betrayed God’s sovereignty.
God had done so many extraordinary miracles for His people. He parted the Red Sea so they could walk through when He delivered them from the bondage of Egyptian slavery. When they were in the wilderness, He rained manna from heaven to feed them. The blessings of His provision and protection are too numerous for anyone to count, but even so, in Isaiah 43:18-19(NLT), God told them, “18 But forget all that—it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. 19 For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.” Their thoughts were limited. They only thought of God within the boundaries of what He had done in the past. Our Heavenly Father wanted to show them a side of Him they hadn’t yet seen. He was doing something new.
God hasn’t changed. He’s still doing the exceedingly abundantly, and He desires to do a new thing in our conditions and circumstances, and indeed, in all of creation. The world as we know it is corrupting moment by moment, and we are witnessing this in real time, but we cannot allow what is happening in the world to cause us to take our eyes off what God is doing in our lives. When we take our eyes off the prize of Jesus Christ, our everyday existence can become very stale. We’re not as excited about God and all He’s done for us as we should be. Our expectations shift away from faith and on to fear. When this happens, we can get sucked into the world and look for it to fill our cups.
We have fears that we are not enough. We fear that God is not going to give us the desires of our hearts, and we fear that what we have might be taken away. The anxiety and cares of holding on to what we have right now can blind us from seeing the new blessings that God wants to give us. Like the children of Israel, we can become stuck, refusing to release habit patterns that no longer serve us well.
Romans 12:2(NLT) tells us, “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.” Many of us hold ourselves back when we do not do as God commands us in Romans 12:2. He commands us to change the way we think, and the humility to do this opens us up to the work the Holy Spirit is doing internally.
Understand that God is not moving independent of us. God is moving through us. His Spirit dwells in us, and Philippians 2:13(NLT) declares, “For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.” Our very lives present the greatest tool by which God’s power is manifested outwardly. Our Heavenly Father is so incredibly patient with us. He has done everything possible to get us to align with His Will, so that we will speak right and think right, so that we will confess and think in alignment with faith in Him. Right thinking and right confessions according to God’s Word are required to come into agreement with the power and authority that Christ has given us. Those who do not come into agreement with the power and authority that Christ has given us will always feel as though they are running on empty.
God tells us in Proverbs 18:21(NLT) that “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.” Many of us have been speaking death rather than life over our circumstances and conditions. We bring ourselves in alignment with the worst outcomes rather than with God’s blessings, and He wants us to open our eyes about what we’re doing, so that we can change. God has placed the power in our hands to break the chains of bad habits, so we begin to speak the way He speaks and think the way He thinks. When we do this, we’ll introduce the power of His love and light into every situation and circumstance of our lives.
As born-again children of God, we live the dream every day of our lives, whether we acknowledge it or not. Colossians 2:9-10(NLT) says, “9 For in Christ lives all the fullness of God in a human body. 10 So you also are complete through your union with Christ, who is the head over every ruler and authority.” God has made you whole through Jesus Christ. In him, your cup overflows with all spiritual blessings. Get in God’s Word, follow the Spirit’s leadership and guidance, and recognize your capacity to operate out of God’s overflow continually. He’s done this for you through His Son’s sacrifice and resurrection. He has already paid the price for your victory, and it’s up to you to claim it for yourself and then walk in it. ■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
“My Cup Overflows”, written by Reverend Fran Mack. Edits by Kim Times and K. Stephens for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2023. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord! SMS is dedicated to inspiring and encouraging Christian Women through the Word of God.