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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