We all try to pour from an empty pitcher at times. It’s like trying to be superwoman is baked into our DNA. People ask, so we pour and we pour and we pour until we ourselves are empty. I don’t care who you are or how strong your faith walk with Jesus, you need to continually be filled. I think those with the strongest walk often fall victim to the mentality that they can do it all. You can’t. God can. God will. And He may do it through you, but only when you are filled first.

I know this is an overused analogy, but it’s like riding on a plane with a child. You will be told that if the cabin pressure fails, a mask will drop down. Counterintuitive to what you think, you are told to place the mask on you first – then the child’s. If you pass out, no one will be there to help that child. It’s an overused analogy for a reason, the truth of it. If you’re a mom or wife or business professional or ministry leader or all of the above, you need to be filled in order to fill others and to fill all the roles you are assigned in this life.

We know this, we are told this, but still we keep trying to pour without being filled. Why? Since I’ve been filled and I’ve been empty, I can only look at my own history and try to figure out why I didn’t seek to be filled.

I’ve come up with two reasons:

1) I didn’t believe that the Word of God could fill.
That was my biggest mistake and what led to my own worst seasons. No matter how many times preachers and teachers and speakers would tell me that all that I needed could be found in God’s Word, I didn’t believe them. I had tried and failed and given up. I tried, instead, to walk this thing out on my own. (I still shake my head at myself and my unbelief.) Besides the Word, I didn’t believe Jesus was enough. I kept looking for Jesus plus. I believed that other things could fill me. Always a lie. So my truest issue was belief, what I believed vs. what I didn’t believe.

2) I underestimated how vital it was to continually be filled.
I couldn’t be filled one day a week. I needed Jesus – the Word – daily. That included reading His Word, prayer, and listening. I’m not saying that we have to read ten chapters a day. I tried so many reading plans that left me frustrated. To have some predefined length of material kept me from hearing God. Or if I did sense He was speaking through a particular verse, I had to keep reading past it in order to stay on track. Now, I read whatever I feel led to read. I do keep a normal flow of reading going. Where I leave off one day, I begin the next. Some days I may read ten verses and others two. We have made this so academic that we don’t allow for the Spirit to speak and move. (Maybe more on the reading topic another day.)

The point is: You need Living Water to be pouring water.

Last week I asked you to consider yourself with sober judgment. Are you the pitcher or the glass? If you are a pitcher, this week I want you to take a look at yourself and pray. Are you running around sprinkling a droplet here and there, or are you filled and able to fill others?

Don’t worry glasses, we will get to you next week in the post: Why am I an empty glass?

Blessings to you and yours,

Lisa