Mar 22 How Big is Your Cup?

Mar 22

How Big is Your Cup?

Ps 23:5 …..my cup runneth over.

By the time they stopped pouring beer on the ground the mud was a couple inches deep. Beer may be an odd subject for a devotional but it was the best example that came to my mind. During my time in the military I was stationed in Germany. There was always a big picnic on the 4^th of July with mounds of food and more beer than an army could drink! But I want to focus not on the beer but how it was served.

A long table sat behind two military trucks filled with barrels of beer right from the brewery. Spigots were pounded into the barrels of beer, they were laid on the tailgate of the trucks and turned on.  Servers filled two quart pitchers from the running spigots and slopped it over the line of beer steins guys held on the serving table. They did not pour beer into each stein. Rather they tipped the pitcher and quickly poured a stream of beer over several steins. Some steins overflowed, others were partially filled. Lots of beer splashed onto the table and then onto the ground.

That is the way I want to think about the cup of blessings God gives us; In abundance, overflowing, and more than we can ever hold. The word cup as used in the 23 psalm is a figurative cup. The word means to hold together, contain, hold the portion allotted someone. Cup is a common and proper translation, especially in reference to God setting a table before us. Except for that, the container could be a bucket i.e. my bucket runneth over, or my barrel runneth over.  it is the container of the portion allotted us.

Now how big is your cup? That is another way of asking have you counted your blessings.

The daily pressures of life can take our eyes from our blessings. Perhaps you are in a situation where you feel you have no blessings. There may be some strained relationship with another person or organization that occupies your mind. Paul, in Philippians, lists four distractions; people, things, circumstances and worry. If these are worrisome to you then you may not notice your cup is overflowing with blessings. Join me while we review some of God’s richest blessing to us.

Ps 68:19 Blessed be the Lord, who daily loadeth us

with benefits, even the God of our salvation. Selah.

Our daily blessings are many. A young man saw an older man struggle with a coughing spell and asked “Having a bad day, old timer?” and was corrected with the response “Any day I wake up is a good day!”  Waking in the morning is a blessing. Being refreshed by a good nights sleep is a blessing. That first cup of coffee or juice is a blessing. Indeed our days are loaded with blessings. And that is just in the physical realm. Our spiritual well-being is an even greater blessing.

Pr 10:22 The blessing of the LORD, it maketh rich,

and he addeth no sorrow with it.

Where do we start?  How can we list all that God has done for us? No wonder the psalmist said his cup overflowed. I am unable to list your blessings. But perhaps I can give you some seed thoughts to aid you in seeing how our great God has poured his blessings upon you.

Our physical blessings are often taken for granted.

Mt 6:26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?

His eye is on the sparrow, and I know he watches me. Yes, I know you may have problems with, people, things, circumstances or worry. You may wish your problems were gone. Consider for a moment what would happen if you were with a huge crowd of people and everyone took their problems and put them in a clear plastic bag. Then they were told to hang it on the wall of a huge auditorium and walk around looking at other people’s bag of problems. Next they were told they could have any bag of problems hanging along the wall. Most people would run to grab their own bag of problems.  

Many of our difficulties are blessings from God! They are given to us to teach us what we could not learn any other way. Consider what you think are problems and look for the blessing. Even the apostle Paul had a thorn in the flesh, and knew why it was there.

But beyond the physical blessings of food, raiment and housing, God has made our spiritual cups to overflow as well. Consider with me the two types of blessings we receive as Christians. They are often linked together.

The first is mercy. Count, if you can, the mercies you have received of God.  Mercy is not getting a punishment you deserve.

4 ¶ But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, 5 Even when we were

dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ,  

6 And hath raised us up together, and made us

sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:

Grace is just the opposite from mercy. Grace is getting something you did not deserve. The old acrostic still works; G-R-A-C-E is God’s Riches At Christ’s Expense. Once again name for me all that God has given you that you did not deserve.

Now place your cup under these two streams – physical blessings and spiritual blessings. How quickly did your cup fill to overflowing? What size cup did you bring? Oh it wouldn’t matter, it would still runneth over. “…my cup runneth over.”

1Co 2:9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen,

 nor ear heard, neither have entered

into the heart of man, the things which

God hath prepared for them that love him.