Friday, March 4, 2011

An unexpected lesson from a watering can, a pitcher, and a hose..... Being poured out doesn't look like I thought I did... But I am oh so glad...

I saw a watering can... a pitcher .... a hose....

"You can pour out your life if you want to ".......

There was so much that I thought of ...... so much about pouring out my life.....

Who was I pouring my life out for?

To what degree would I allow my life to be poured out?

Was a hose really better than a pitcher or a watering can?

As I thought about this subject the more I began to understand ... or so I thought

I first understood about degrees of being poured out.... But while in the natural one would think that being poured out like a hose would be always what the Father would want ... atleast I thought that initially ... I realized how wrong I was as I continued to think it all through......

That is when all the questions began to surface....

As there is a season and a time for all things so there is as well a season and a time for watering.... some gardens need a watering can.... some places need a pitcher of water... and others need a hose.... but sometimes it is for the garden to lay fallow and the land to rest.....

Something I thought was going to be an easy concept and a quick devotional began to consume me....

Was I being poured into as well as pouring out.....

And I am not talking about others here I am talking about from God.... am I pausing enough in my day to receive from Him so that I can walk out with Him.... because here is when the jewel He deposited into my heart came as I tried to process these things that He was leading me to think upon.....

When this came I got it..... and I understood the way He wanted me to understand..... not as I would have... I would have thought a whole other thing.....

I can truly only pour out of my life that which I receive.... If I sit and receive as from a hose than I have that to give... If I sit and receive from Him a pitcher than I have that to give.... If I sit and receive from Him a watering can than I have only that to give....

Giving more than we receive from God is entering into works of the flesh and attempting to do things in our own strength...... and that road isn't a pretty one... nor one filled with the things we truly want... let me say it this way it isn't filled with the things I truly want.... However... when I take time to soak in His presence than it is just a natural overflow of my life the love and service that pours out of me.... it isn't as much work as it is delight..... it isn't as much effort as it is effortless.....

But do I discern enough to know when it is that the water has stopped flowing or do I keep going on ? Do I discern when it is time to sit and be saturated by the waters of His presence? Do I pause and watch and look towards the Father to see that which He is doing so as to only do that?

Good ideas aren't necessarily full of life... they can be full of work... but keeping busy for the sake of activity doesn't build the Kingdom.... atleast not my Father's kingdom .... it might the kingdom of a man but that is not where I want to dwell...... In my Father's house are many rooms and the discovery of His heart is what I am after.....

Trust says that I have all the time in the world to sit with my Father... even when to the onlooker it would look like a waste of time or that I wasn't being a good steward of that which is mine to do..... but I have learned this....

In repentance and rest is my salvation and in quietness and trust is my strength... That as I sit with Him and absorb from Him and spend time with Him .... When I go out that is what people get poured out of my life... HIM!!! The Father... and I have seen as that has made all the difference.........

I want to walk with Him... I want to pour out my life unto death for Him.... But He wants me to live for Him and receive from Him and walk with Him and work WITH Him......

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