Scripture: “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.” Romans 15:13
Have you ever filled a glass so full that the water spilled over the sides? We usually see that as a mistake. We filled it too much. We should have stopped when the glass was full. But God doesn’t seem nearly as concerned with stopping at “enough.”
God doesn’t just want to give us enough grace to get through the day. He gives grace upon grace. He doesn’t just give us enough joy to survive our circumstances. He fills us with joy. He doesn’t just give us enough peace to hold ourselves together. He gives a peace that passes understanding. And He doesn’t just give us enough hope to keep going. Romans 15:13 says He wants us to overflow with hope.
Why?
Because the overflow isn’t just for us. When a cup overflows, whatever is inside it touches everything around it. And the same is true of our lives. When God fills us with grace, eventually that grace spills over into the way we treat someone who doesn’t deserve it. When He fills us with peace, that peace becomes visible when everyone around us is anxious. When He fills us with joy, people begin to wonder how we can still smile when life isn’t perfect. When He fills us with love, that love spills into our conversations, our relationships, our homes, our churches, and our communities.
The overflow becomes evidence of our Savior.
Maybe that is why God gives us more than enough. His blessings were never intended to stop with us. Think about a fountain. The water continually pours into the top, fills it, and then spills into the basin below. The fountain doesn’t struggle to produce the water. It simply receives and then what it cannot contain flows outward.
That’s a beautiful picture of the Christian life. We don’t manufacture grace. We don’t manufacture joy. We don’t manufacture peace.
We stay close to our Savior and allow Him to keep filling us.
And when He does, there should eventually be so much of Jesus in us that some of Him spills onto the people around us.
Someone needs the encouragement God has placed in you. Someone needs the grace you’ve experienced. Someone needs to see your joy. Someone needs the hope that has carried you through a difficult season.
Someone may even come to know Jesus because they saw something overflowing from your life that they couldn’t explain any other way.
God isn’t interested in barely enough. He is a God of abundance. Because when God fills a life, He doesn’t intend for His goodness to stay contained. He fills us so that He can flow through us.
Shine, Shine, Shine!