Hope you have a cup of coffee, hot tea, or hot chocolate, the visual will be helpful. I love dishes (I am not alone in this!): I have Irish mugs, crystal cups for punch, cups and saucers, holiday cups and mugs, and even my Southern Belle grandmother’s demitasse teacup that matched her china, and a tea set from Korea my daughter brought to me. Many of the mugs were gifts. One special one has HOPE written on it and was a gift from a dear soul whose life I admire so much for she must live in hope everyday.
Webster’s Dictionary defines a cup as a small round container that often has a handle and is used for drinking liquids.
Your cup may be plain or exquisite. Seasonal or everyday. Chipped and cracked with a history or shiny and new, its history waiting to be written. Practical or decorative. Dollar store find or biggest splurge ever! It may be called a mug, a chalice, a stein, or cup.
Scripture uses a cup as a metaphor. It represents the fate of an individual’s life assigned by God Himself. (Psalm 16:5) How would you describe your cup? Half full, half empty, bone dry, overflowing, unuseable?
I Corinthians 10:16 calls the cup a cup of blessing, or an abundant life.
Psalm 116 the psalmist raises his cup of thanksgiving, a gift to God, act of worship.
Jeremiah 16:7 the cup is a cup of comfort for the bereaved.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus looked into His cup of wrath, and saw His humiliation, suffering, and death. By accepting his cup, He takes our cup of hopelessness and returns it to us as our cup of hope/expectation when we accept his death as payment for our sin.
The fate of the individual is in your cup.
Psalm 23 speaks of the cup running over. This is a picture of a host welcoming his guests to stay! As long as the cup remains filled the host desires the guest to linger a little longer. When the host allows the cup to run dry it puts the guest on notice that the hour is late. An overflowing cup says the host wants you to STAY with him. In this psalm, our Heavenly Father is offering us a cup of welcome as He fills our cup with abundant blessings, overflowing, pressed down, shaken together (Luke 6:38) at HIS table. What a beautiful picture!
Remember, Jesus opened the door of Heaven and you are welcomed! Don’t miss your blessings! Let your cup overflow! Gather every blessing He gives. I do not want to miss a single one!
May your day be filled with His overflowing blessings. Would you offer your cup (your life, your burden, your need) as a gift to Him in return? If you will, you will be giving Jesus just what He wants for His birthday!
Let’s give Him the only thing He asks for—our trust in Him when we relinquish our life, our need, our burden.
Let’s do this!
Yvonne
