MY CUP OVERFLOWS

WEDNESDAY 22 MAY 2024

For someone's cup to overflow, it simply means they have more than enough. In the latter part of Psalm 23, the phrase, "my cup overflows" displays the imagery of the Lord's goodness as a shepherd and you, the child of God, as a sheep well catered for.

Reference: Psalm 23:5 New Living Translation (NLT)

"You honor me by anointing my head with oil.

    My cup overflows with blessings."

Is your cup overflowing with blessings? How true is this? If you are like most people, it may be overflowing, but not with blessings. So many people have overloaded their cup with worries, burdened their minds with overthinking effects due to anxiety, overcrowded their daily routines, and overvalued the approval of others which they depend on, and for these reasons, they seem like a novice when it comes to experiencing the overflow of God's goodness.

Why do we let ourselves get overextended? Often it is the fear of missing out on things that we feel others are experiencing or participating in, and so you find some stretching and vying to meet up or to surpass others. But the truth is: you're not missing out on anything when you focus on the goodness and provision of God's abundance of grace. God always wants to move you from being overwhelmed with worries and overburdened with surrounding influences to experiencing His incomparable overflow. He is ever ready to meet all your needs- as your reliable Shepherd! However, it is your mental approach that will either limit or determine how much you can have and enjoy the pleasures of His Shepherdhood. That means, its either you're functioning with a shortage mentality or a surplus mentality.

With a shortage mentality, you constantly think, "I don't have enough time. I don't have enough money. I don't have enough energy. I don't have enough privilege, contacts, opportunities, connections, knowledge, education, or whatever it is you require." Why so? It is that sense of understanding you've habitually embraced outside of cogitating on God's Word - that causes you to think you're always less than, a pound less, or you're not going to meet up, or reach your desired goal. A shortage mindset focuses on limited resources, and the result is an overwhelmed life.

To focus on the Lord as being your Shepherd is to pay apt attention to His unfailing promises and provisions in the Word, which will in turn, position you to wield or exercise a surplus mindset that attracts God's limitless resources. When you propagate or exude a supply-conscious mentality, even when it seems there's shortage, you'll easily sustain or maintain that perspective till the situation corresponds with the supply in reality, because when such mindset is persistent or habitual in a person, it often results in an abundant and overflowing life.

Have you ever been worried that the person breathing next to you is probably stealing your air? Of course not. You don't get bothered because you know that God made more than enough air available in the space for everyone, yet not one person has consumed all the air. Therefore, imagine God's provision that way, but to do so, is to embrace the unchanging, transforming and uplifting truth in His Word. That way, you lie down in green pastures; instead of getting just a cup full or bucket of water, you are positioned amid pleasant and refreshing meadow, surrounded by quiet sparkling stream or still waters, which can be likened to a well-supply factory that never runs dry. Zero wonder the Scriptures mindfully introduce words like abundance, plentiful, abounding, and bountiful while describing what God does and offers to His children.

To instantiate this verity, Jesus said, "...I came that they may have and enjoy life, and have it in abundance [to the full, till it overflows]" (John 10:10 AMP). In addition, Pauline epistolary dictum reads, "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have an abundance for every good work" (2 Corinthians 9:8 NKJV). Beloved, God has more than enough to meet all your needs and everybody else's needs at the same time. Remember that the cattle on a thousand hills belongs to Him (Psalm 50: 10 -12 ESV).

If Jesus, the good shepherd, has assured you saying, "I came so you can have abundant and better life than you will ever dream of", then you should never have to worry about running short of anything, as long as you acknowledge Him as your source. He owns the ocean of divine provision and all the lines connected to the ocean, and I am sure you can guess what it's all about: The lines of His resources are unending and inexhaustible. Just continue to allow a rich entrance of the Word and He will doubtlessly fill you with an endless supply of His goodness, joy, blessing, hope, and peace, far beyond your imaginative capacity. Therefore, keep renewing your mind and expanding the horizon of your mindset to always accommodate more than enough. Shalom!

Scripture Reading - 2 Corinthians 9:8; Philippians 4:19; Ephesians 3:20; James 1:17.

Guided prayer:

Dear Father, I thank you for furnishing my life with your enormous storehouse of goodness and abounding grace, such that I'm fully loaded with the overflow of your abundant blessings. Hence, my life is a well-watered garden that produces variety of surplus fruits in and out of season. I always think abundance, which causes and empowers me to see and enjoy your endless provision in my life and world, both now and always, in Jesus' Name. Amen!