A Promise For The Fearful: Overflow

• DAY 30
• Fear File: YOU
• Scripture: Psalm 23:5

You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.

Psalm 23:5

Until recently I thought this verse was figurative. Then I read somewhere that the shepherd actually pours a generous amount of oil on the head of their sheep to protect them and heal them. You see the sheep are susceptible to insects that can harm them and they can often get their horn stuck or harm themselves locking horns, hence the oil. 

When we hear anointing these days we think of ordination or ministry or church and we are not wrong. Oil is used for these occasions. But before the oil came for ministry it first came for you. To refresh you. To protect you from foreign and local threats. And sometimes the oil protects you from you. but our focus today is on the last part of our text…

Overflow.

Picture for a moment what an overflowing cup looks like. It spills to the table and flows to the ground and it keeps flowing until the cup is disconnected from the source. The natural thing to do when a cup is full is to stop pouring into it, or to remove the cup from the tap. But God doesn’t work like that. He keeps pouring because He knows you need an overflow to do what he is calling you to do. But what we do is we become like the rich fool in Luke 12 and we start building more barns to store it up for ourselves because, to us, it seems wasteful. So we create means that will absorb the waste. 

Either we store it up or we spend on things we don’t need and all the while, the motivation is so that we can have enough for a future we do not control and leave something behind for children we did not create. And these are not wrong in themselves as long as it is not driven by greed. Because greed is fear.

Some of us become greedy and scoop up the overflow for ourselves and store it so that if it should run out we have something to fall back on. And as surely as night follows day, the supply dries up. Not because it is a rainy day, but because our focus on self shifted the cup from the source.

A You-First Kind Of Blessing

Beloved, why are you afraid? Did you not notice that your Shepherd filled your cup first? He got you to full before He required that you let it flow to others. And can I just say that the cup might be yours but it was placed on your table by the shepherd that prepared the table? That means that He predestined what “full” would be for you by the size of the cup He placed before you. If your neighbour’s cup was what you needed, that is the cup that will be before you. You do not need to create another cup to measure up. And you don’t need to worry about ever having your cup empty because as long as the shepherd is still waiting on your table, He will keep filling your cup. He will not lift his hands until you are full and even then He will not stop because He has an agenda.

Your shepherd is not wasteful, not in the least. The overflow is for a purpose. He is not blessing you for clout. There is Kingdom in His provision. You need to ask Him why He keeps pouring, instead of fattening yourself with the overflow. I hate to burst your bubble but it is not about you! Ask Him what your overflow is for specifically. And present yourself as a channel, not a warehouse. So that He can get things done on earth through you.

And just in case you missed it, the shepherd never goes for a refill. His jug never runs empty and His tap never runs out. So he will never run out of ways to bless you. Do not let fear turn you into a dead sea. Let the overflow come through you and touch the lives of those around you.

Shalom

Catch up on this series here

watch today’s video here

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