Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 14:28 — )
If I lined a number of cups up on a table in front of you and asked you to tell us what was inside them from just looking at the outside of the cup, you could only guess. A china cup looks as though it should have tea inside. A larger mug might appear to be a soup cup. A small tiny cup is often used for espressos. On down the row, you could guess, from looking at the outside, what was inside that cup.
But as long as the cups sit very still, undisturbed, and you’re looking only at the outside from a distance, you can’t really know what’s inside of them. However, if I shake the table on which they’re sitting, or tip one of them over, you will immediately know what’s inside, because it will spill out. That lovely tea cup, all polished and clean on the outside, could have tea—or it could have muddy water. That nice soup cup might indeed have hot soup—or it could have old coffee grounds and dirt.
Well, what happens when you get bumped? How do you react when your table is tilted and you go toppling over? You may look all-together on the outside, very polished and pretty. But how do you look when your insides show?
You know, it doesn’t take a major earthquake to cause a cup to spill its contents. Quite often the smallest little tremor can tip our cups dramatically. In fact, for me, it’s the little things that tip my cup most often. Seems like I can handle big situations better than I can the little irritations—the unkind word, the sarcastic remark, the unfair treatment. But whether the bumps are large or small, the unpleasant situations in our lives will reveal the ingredients inside of us.
Often it’s true that your job and the people you work with are frequently where you get bumped and jostled. I well remember a job situation that caused my cup to spill over. I was working for a very difficult boss, who managed through humiliation and intimidation. At first I had great difficulty with this person, and when God challenged me to take a serious look at what came spilling out of my cup because of this difficult relationship, I wasn’t too pleased.
Selfishness was the first thing I saw come running over the sides. I realized that my thought patterns had been centered on such sentiments as “I can’t take this anymore,” or “This is not fair to me,” and “I’ve worked too hard to get where I am to have to put up with this kind of treatment.” It was all about me and how it affected my life.
This unpleasant job environment caused another thing to come spilling out of my jostled cup: impatience. Patience is not one of my strong points, but it is one of the fruits of the Spirit that as a follower of Jesus Christ should be evident in my life. But when my boss caused my “cup” to spill over, a whole lot of impatience came spilling out of my cup.
In Psalm 103:8 we read that our God is “compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.” When I began to compare my behavior with God’s behavior toward me, I had no choice but to repent of my own lack of tolerance and ask God to give me his graciousness and kindness.
Another thing this stressful situation caused to spill out of my cup was malice. Isn’t that an awful word? Malice is the desire to see others suffer. And I saw that I had a heart full of malice toward the person causing me the difficulty. And along with malice usually comes slander, because as soon as we express those malicious thoughts, we have become guilty of slander.
It wasn’t pleasant to see what came running over the sides of my cup in that situation. But it caused me to get serious about cleaning up my cup. And with prayer and the convicting power of the Holy Spirit, changes started to take place.
Do you remember what Jesus said to the Scribes and Pharisees about cups?
“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean” (Matthew 23:25-26).
Can you imagine how those Scribes and Pharisees felt, being accused of robbery and self-indulgence? How that must have shocked and angered them, because they saw themselves as the epitome of uprightness; after all they were meticulous about keeping the law. They were so very careful about outward appearances, and they always made sure they did the right thing at the right time, said the right thing, and followed all the traditions. They were the ultimate in political correctness! And Jesus endeavors to show them that all that exterior stuff is no good if on the inside they are harboring bad attitudes and motives.
Have you ever tried to wash the inside of a cup, but leave the outside dirty? It’s practically impossible. But it’s quite easy to clean the outside and leave the inside dirty. Do you get the analogy? If we get our insides clean, the outsides will be clean, too. So, our focus should be to get the inside clean.
While we’re talking about cups, let me take the illustration a step further. If I had a perfectly clean cup filled with fresh milk and offered it to you, you’d have no difficulty accepting it and drinking it. But if I took that same fresh cup of milk and put one small teaspoon of bleach in it, I doubt you’d be willing to drink it. Though it contained mostly good healthy milk, that one teaspoon of bleach would ruin the contents of the entire cup.
I hardly have to apply this illustration for you, I’m sure. It doesn’t take very much bitterness to ruin what is in your cup. Or malice, or envy or pride or unkindness or unthankfulness or . . . the list could go on and on. That’s why it is so important to see what is in our cups that needs to be cleaned out.
If you’re not happy with what you see spilling out of your cup from time to time, then you need to get the inside clean, really clean. Instead of focusing on the people or circumstances causing the ugly stuff to spill out of your cup, focus on what you can do to keep the inside clean so that no matter what happens, good things spill out of your cup.
Let me remind you of what Paul said in Romans:
And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us (Romans 5:2-5).
Our cups are jostled to show us what’s inside, so that we can develop a mature Christian character. It’s rather painful sometimes to have to face up to the mess that’s spilling out of our cups, but the sooner we face it, confess it, and ask God to change us, the better equipped we’ll be to let God fill our cups with himself, so that when we spill over, people see the likeness of Christ in us.
Often we use the expression “my cup overflows” when we feel particularly blessed and happy. Well, that’s the way it should be—our cup should overflow with good things. But not just when the circumstances are good. Even in the tough times, even when we don’t feel like it, even when we can’t see what God is doing, even when we are plagued with discouragement or doubts—even then in the midst of the trouble, our cups should overflow with God’s goodness.
Yet I find that when things are not going good, if I’m not careful, my cup can overflow with complaining; with criticism; with giving up; with negativism. Why? Because I allow circumstances to determine what’s in my cup. Would that be true of you as well?
I encourage you to ask yourself: Does my cup overflow with good things only when things are going my way? Or does it overflow with God’s goodness to me even in the midst of trouble?
The secret is to make sure you’re filled up on the inside with the right stuff. Then you don’t have to worry about what comes out. I love the old song: “Fill my cup, Lord, I lift it up Lord. Come and quench this thirsting of my soul. Bread of heaven, feed me ’til I want no more. Fill my cup; fill it up and make me whole.”
We need cups filled with Jesus. I am more and more convinced that the focus of my life has to be simply and only Jesus. There’s a hymn that I love which says: “Only Jesus, only Jesus, only he can satisfy. Every burden becomes a blessing, When I know my Lord is nigh.” It reminds me that regardless of the circumstances, if I’m filled with Jesus, I will be satisfied, I will be joyful, I will be spilling over with the beauty of Jesus.
Oh, that doesn’t mean I have to be happy about negative situations, about difficult things. But what is so great about being a Christian is that with Jesus, we can know his peace and contentment and joy in the midst of all those troublesome situations.
How do we get our cups filled up with Jesus? Through the Word—the Bread of heaven. If the time you spend in the Bible is not very much and not consistent, your cup won’t be full of Jesus, and when it spills over, you won’t like what you see. But if you pour the Word of God and prayer into your cup regularly, then your cup will spill over with the peace and compassion of Jesus Christ.
You fill your cup up with Jesus by thinking about him all through the day. Do you practice his presence regularly? Do you communicate with him all through the day, and seek his guidance in all things? That will fill your cup up with Jesus.
So, I encourage you to use every jostle, every bump in the road as an opportunity to check up on yourself. When the boss upsets you and causes you to complain, you know you need to clean out the inside of that cup. When someone does you wrong, and you respond with patience and tolerance, you know Jesus is spilling out of your cup. When the money is low and you spill over with worry and fear, you need to work on the inside of the cup. When your health is not good, but you praise God anyway, you are spilling over the beauty of Jesus.
When my cup runs over, what spills out? A good question to ask ourselves every day.