And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may … grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ [and] that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Ephesians 3:17-19

Well I’ve had some overflow moments this week. Have you? 

For the past few Sundays we’ve been talking about “overflow” in the morning worship service. God pours into us his healing presence, guidance and provision and the outflow is love, joy, peace, comfort and generosity. In Him, we are full to the point of overflowing. In fact, it is God’s purpose and design that we overflow into the lives of others. After all, how can we contain the abundant presence of God? His goodness and grace end up spilling out so that those around us “see our good deeds and praise our Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16).” Psalm 23:5 is so true, my cup overflows! 

Pastor John mentioned in staff meeting on Monday that the metaphor of an overflowing cup is in some ways incomplete. Some may be misled to believe that God’s filling is an external process that we must pursue or run after. But Jesus said that the new covenant believer overflows like an artesian well that ” streams of living water will flow from within him. (John 7:38)” To experience God’s abundance from within is to be full indeed! 

Back to my overflow moment… Last night our neighbor needed to go to the emergency room. A single mom with no family available in the immediate area, we were overjoyed that she turned to us for help. Justin and her son are neighborhood buddies already, so our family mobilized to provide child care, dinner and take care of a few simple tasks for her family. The moment I took that call I knew it was a God-planned overflow moment. “Our family is a blank check for you” I told her. “We’ll do anything you need us to do.” And I meant it. 

In some ways this was an incredibly easy overflow moment. I mean, after all, who wouldn’t help out a neighbor in a situation like that? I must confess that I find it much more difficult to experience or recognize overflow when I’m stressed and behind schedule, or I’m refereeing an argument between my children, experiencing relational conflict or (as was the case this week) recovering from a computer crash which causes me to rewrite the entire midweek update! Nevertheless, in all circumstances my cup overflows. 

God’s overflow is like a constant stream of living water. May you and those around you experience his overflow this week.