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The “pitcher” is how God wants us to use our lives. An empty pitcher without the coffee is just another pitcher, for the most part, useless without the coffee. First, it cannot be used without us taking action: We must take action to add the coffee grounds and water. Secondly, we must have faith: We believe that by our actions of adding the coffee and water that, (the person who made the coffee maker) made it right and although we don’t necessarily see the process, we always have a finished product and a pitcher with coffee, ready to be served.
I’m sure your minds are all running at this point in the parable, but let me share with you how God laid this on my heart. First, when we are all prayed-up and have studied the Word of God, our pitcher gets full.
Let’s stop here:
What would happen if that is all we did? What if we just let the pitcher full of coffee sit there?
Answer: No one would receive His blessings, more than likely this person would be self –righteous.
What would happen if we never served the coffee?
Answer: I believe we would find self-indulgence and a person of abundance without compassion.
What would happen if we kept all the coffee for ourselves?
Answer: Here I think we see some of God’s great warnings for our lives; Greed, envy, fear, and self-centeredness, (the opposite of love)!
Back to the pitcher, once we’ve taken action and had faith in the process to have our pitcher filled, not only does God want us to share this with others, He expects us to! He wants us to pour out everything onto everyone and start the process all over again tomorrow or possibly later that day. God wants us to give it all. He has promised to give us what we will need for tomorrow, tomorrow.
Exodus: 16 give us some prime examples of God’s directions and provision for our daily lives. 4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Look, I’m going to rain down food from heaven for you. Each day the people can go out and pick up as much food as they need for that day. I will test them in this to see whether or not they will follow my instructions. 5 On the sixth day they will gather food, and when they prepare it, there will be twice as much as usual.”
19 Then Moses told them, “Do not keep any of it until morning.” 20 But some of them didn’t listen and kept some of it until morning. But by then it was full of maggots and had a terrible smell. Moses was very angry with them. 21 After this the people gathered the food morning by morning, each family according to its need. And as the sun became hot, the flakes they had not picked up melted and disappeared.
23 He told them, “This is what the Lord commanded: Tomorrow will be a day of complete rest, a holy Sabbath day set apart for the Lord. So bake or boil as much as you want today, and set aside what is left for tomorrow.” 24 So they put some aside until morning, just as Moses had commanded. And in the morning the leftover food was wholesome and good, without maggots or odor. 25 Moses said, “Eat this food today, for today is a Sabbath day dedicated to the Lord. There will be no food on the ground today. 26 You may gather the food for six days, but the seventh day is the Sabbath. There will be no food on the ground that day.” 27 Some of the people went out anyway on the seventh day, but they found no food. 28 The Lord asked Moses, “How long will these people refuse to obey my commands and instructions?
29 They must realize that the Sabbath is the Lord’s gift to you. That is why he gives you a two-day supply on the sixth day, so there will be enough for two days. On the Sabbath day you must each stay in your place. Do not go out to pick up food on the seventh day.” 30 So the people did not gather any food on the seventh day.
God cares about us enough to provide the things we so often worry about. The Israelites were told to eat as much as they wanted; God even gave them quail at night, and even with this daily abundance of food we read about complaints and hoarding. We have all done this in different seasons and may be doing these things today. We will never be find out Gods purpose for our lives by complaining and comparing our lives to those around us and not bask in Gods great daily blessings.
Blind faith and total trust in the Lord is not always easy, but is ALWAYS worth it! If we can keep our eyes on the cross instead of the World and the circumstances we find ourselves in, it becomes easier to walk with Him daily. I can’t stress enough that your walk must be daily and often minute to minute. Don’t wait for tragedy or misfortune to strike to seek Him. Start today; start making your coffee today. God’s greatest commandment is to love one another. Well then, let me scream from the mountain tops, for all of us Christians sitting on the sidelines, it is time to start serving your coffee! God has given us so much. We are so often scared someone might end up with more than us that we have forgotten the true meaning of Christianity, or we say I just don’t have the time to serve or enough resources’. Just in case you didn’t know….. IT IS ALL HIS, your body, your things, your money, and especially your time! This is how simple God makes it; He gave every one of us an equal playing ground, a body and time. We all have the exact amount of time in each day.
Charles Stanley said “we can always make more money, but we cannot make more time, once it is gone, it is gone forever.”
Our time may just be one of God’s most precious commodities here on earth. Look at it like this, everything here on earth can be stripped from our bodies, by another man. No man can decide to shorten the hours in a day, not even 1 second.
Often times we fill our lives with so many things; (debt), that we rob God of our time, the more debt the less time we have available for God. That’s why He tells us not to acquire debt.
If any of you have ever spent any time in marketing, I’m sure you have heard the expression “K.I.S.S.”. I envision God K.I.S.S.ing me every morning and with that is this reminder, (Keep It Simple Stupid). So often our carnal minds complicate things. He really made it simple; love me first above all things and love one another. If we will learn to walk in Faith, God will work out the details. The call of God comes in many different shapes and forms, but I can say this with great conviction, I know He hasn’t called you or me to sit on the sidelines!
I challenge all of you to ask yourselves these questions: (Before answering, take a deep breath and get really honest and think before answering).
1. Are you adding fresh coffee every day?
2. Are you adding water every day?
3. And more importantly, are you sharing and serving that full pitcher with others?
4. Have you embraced God’s will and purpose for your life?
5. Have you asked God what that looks like?
I have learned in my relationship with Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior that He can’t show me how deep the waters are without me, first getting in the water. I also know that somehow, someway, as long as I am truly walking with Him, He ALWAYS works it out to HIS good in all my successes and all my failures. He is always there and always awesome. I thank Him for these Words I have written and I thank Him for my salvation. If you are a Christian that needs to engage or an individual who has not yet accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, Jesus has already pre-prayed for you to find and live a fulfilled life with Him!
Embrace, engage and stay under Gods umbrella of protection and allow the blessings to flourish in your lives and others. My hopes and prayers are that God will use these Words to ignite or re-ignite His calling and purpose for your life. May you prepare your coffee and may God open the flood gates of Heaven and rain down His great glory, mercy, favor and peace over you and your families.
to be continued.....
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