Faith and Joy are definitely vessels of encouragement to one another!
Hello, all--
Well, here's another one for the "Language Study" file, under the heading of "Knowing Enough to be Dangerous": Yesterday in my Vietnamese study, Linh had me practicing by formulating different sentences. Eager to employ my new vocabulary, I was spouting out all manner of communiques from telling Bee to buy bread and eggs, to telling Linh I would visit her house tomorrow afternoon. As you know, many words in Vietnamese (and English) sound similar, but have very different meanings. At one point, I was using the words ban and ban (each "ban" has different dots and accent marks that make its pronunciation varied--slightly). One "ban" means "your", another means "sell." Then there is "ba", which means "grandmother." You might guess, in the end, I think I told Linh that I was coming to her house to sell her grandmother! Hmmm....could this be why my social calendar remains empty? :)
On another note, I have been preparing to lead the worship singing at our church tomorrow. One of the songs has a verse that has really taken root and is producing a garden in my thoughts. It says...
This is my prayer in the harvest when favor and providence flow
I know I'm filled to be emptied again, the seed I've received I will sow
I am reminded that God plants a seed, waters it with His grace and produces a harvest so that we will sow the seed again. Too often, I am happy to enjoy the fruit, savor the moment, soak up the love-- with little thought to "the rest of the story." This morning, I was reading Ephesians. Here is Eph. 3:14-19. I have bolded the portion that "grabbed my brain by the shoulders and gave a good shake.
"For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power, through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith--that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God."
I'm not sure that I have ever really noticed Paul's prayer that believers would have "strength" to comprehend the love, power, goodness, holiness, righteousness, etc., of God. Isn't "comprehension" a mental exercise? Isn't understanding for the "spiritual brainiac" who contemplates, meditates, cogitates, and then regurgitates for the rest of us?
I think what the Lord is showing me (again) is that His goodness is a river that flows through. My relationship with him is not a stagnant receptacle. As much as I relish the in-filling--"I know I'm filled to be emptied again." My Father's mercies are new every morning not only because I need them so much. They are new every morning because I am to be His vessel of distributing them to others. So today, I am praying indeed that God will fill me with Himself. But I pray with more understanding and humility and dependance upon Him. In my own strength, it is exhausting to be a vessel that pours and pours and pours. In His hands, it is rest--for He continually replenishes with great refreshment of His own being.
A tree is rooted and grounded so that it is even more productive, visible, and beautiful to the world above the roots. I think, if its possible, it makes the tree happy, too. Today, may you be that beautiful, strong, majestic tree planted by streams of Living Water!
Grace to you and through you!
