Available and availing!
Verse for
Today: Friday, August 09, 2013
John 2:6 – Nearby stood six stone water jars,
the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to
thirty gallons.
The blessings that we enjoy from God are often
limited to our surrender rather than His willingness to bless us. God has blessed
us with all the blessings of the heavenly places, but we often do not open our
mouth wide to enjoy it. Even though we positionally become recipients of His
blessings, it is not translated into our practical lives because of our lack of
surrender. When we do not make our faculties available to Him, we fail to
receive blessings to fill the unsurrendered areas of our lives. Jesus was ready
and willing to bless the marriage house at Cana and to meet all their needs.
But unfortunately they only had 6 stone water jars that were available to Him.
So only these six were used to fill it with His goodness. Today Jesus is
looking for empty vessels so that he can fill it with His best. If we make our
empty lives available to Him, He will fill it to the brink. Then others will
taste the goodness of God in our lives through our behavior, attitude and corresponding
action. But for this to happen, we must empty ourselves of selfishness and self-will.
God challenges us to submit our lowly lives to Him to lift up to higher vistas.
Our lives will then become instruments to demonstrate His power and glory. His
question to us today is as to how far we are willing to make ourselves
available to Him to fill and make use of us. We must make use of the
opportunity to be filled with Jesus while there is still chance.
Dear friend, how many opportunities have you missed
in receiving great spiritual blessings from God? If you fill your faculties
with the world and its seemingly glittering, but perishable things, you will
not be used for God’s glory. This is because God will not fill a vessel which
is not completely empty, clean and surrendered to Him. He will not mix His
blessings with the world’s temporal elements which might be inside us. It is
useless to lament at the end that we didn’t make all our faculties available to
Jesus early in life for full use. When we allow our lives to be filled with His
goodness, it will end up as spiritual blessings to many whose lives have no
taste. It is also true that those stone water jars were fortunate to be of use
to Jesus when He wanted it. Let us not get frustrated at the end of
opportunities that we have not made use of it. Today Jesus the gracious and
compassionate Provider is passing your way to see if you are willing to make yourself
available to Him to use the way He wants. He will provide all the necessary
ingredients for you to be of use to Him. He doesn’t want you to use any worldly
resources because those are powerless for His purpose. When you allow God’s
resources to fill your vessel, it would bring forth the kind of results that
God wants from your life. It will then become a blessing to those who taste
your life through the way you relate to them. Let us today empty ourselves of
our self and make us available for God to pour His goodness into our lives to
use us for His eternal purpose. Our surrendered lives might be looked upon as waste
by the world, but we will have gained the greatest and most fortunate usefulness
for Jesus.
Psalms 81:10b – Open wide your mouth and I will
fill it.
Thought for
Today
The greatest lament of our age would be our lost
opportunity to make ourselves fully and unconditionally available for God to
fill us.
Prayer for
Today
Lord: Help me to empty my life of self and the world
and to make it fully available to You to fill it with Your goodness. Amen!
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