OVERFLOW           


















I prayed all week for the Lord to give me a topic for my next post.  He dropped it into my heart Friday night with one word:  overflow.  After thanking Him for it, I have pondered it and prayed about it since.  Why did he pick "overflow" instead of "overflowing"?  Typically, when we think of this concept, we think of it as "overflowing", right? 


I did some research with the Strong Concordance and the Webster 1828 Dictionary (which is supposed to be the dictionary with the nearest definition to what the word meant in the Bible). And, of course, I knew that "overflow" is a noun, and "overflowing" is a verb or adjective (depending on how it is used in the sentence). "Overflowing" means spilling over.  We all know that, without even looking it up, and we know that God wants Christians to be overflowing onto others, leading them to Christ and eternal life by accepting his free gift of salvation through the sacrifice Jesus made for each of us by the shedding of his innocent blood. God wants us to live our lives so that others will want what we have, giving us the opportunity to share the source of any blessing in our life.


So, what is the Lord trying to tell us by using the topic "Overflow"?  The meaning of "overflow" is superabundance.  We cannot be overflowing until we have overflow, which is, superabundance.  Joy cannot be overflowing out of us onto others unless we have a superabundance of joy first.  The same can be said about any good thing:  peace, scripture, encouragement.....you get the idea. We have to be more than just full.  We must be MORE than full, to the point that we cannot contain it anymore!!  The superabundance is what starts overflowing onto others and ministering to them.


How do we have that superabundance in our life?  We get it by continually drinking and feasting from God's Word - then meditating on it, studying it, and applying it to our lives.  If we only read it, we will forget it.  We must do all these other things, too, to get it inside us.  If it is not inside us, it will not fill us up.  If we do not get filled up, we cannot overflow. 


We also need time in prayer.  Prayer is two-way communication with God.  It is not just us telling him our needs.  We also need to be still and listen.  He wants to speak to our hearts.  And we need to praise Him.  We have so much to thank Him for because He is so good to us. 


I encourage you to give Him time every day, if you are not already doing so, and put enough of His Word, prayer, and praise into your spirit so that you cannot contain it all, and then watch it spill over onto others and fill your heart and life with so much joy.  Please feel free to share a comment of something good the Lord has done for you.  I would love to hear if you like my blog, and I pray you have a great week in the Lord!