This summer I have becoming very familiar with buckets. Mind you I haven’t filled one with berries, used one to build a sandcastle or to carry worms to the fishing hole….yet. I have however put many under the eaves of the house while praying for rain to fill them.
Our water supply comes from a well and every summer we have bouts of running low, or out of water. This requires creative solutions such as ‘showering’ from a bucket and heating buckets of water on the stove for dishes. Activities that my parents recollect from their childhood only in modern times. We are thankful for laundromats, bottled water and family and friends who have enough water to spare.
I don’t tell you any of this for sympathy. It’s really just an inconvenience and reminds us of all the blessings we have and perhaps how much we take for granted. And it’s fun to play in the rain when the buckets are filling up and need to be emptied into jugs so they can catch more! For me it’s also nostalgic, reminders of trips next door to the farm for showers as kids and learning from my grandpa to brush my teeth using a glass of water instead of water running from the faucet.
So I’ve been thinking a lot about buckets, and being filled. I’ve been thinking about how each of us needs to be filled every day. Not only our physical needs but mental, emotional and spiritual spaces in our hearts and lives that need filling.
How do I choose to fill these voids?
Am I filled by what others believe about me, or say to me each day?
Am I filled by what I read, listen to or what I watch on television?
Am I filled by what I believe about myself?
To some extent the answer to all of these questions is, “yes”. Our lives are impacted by outside influences every day. The question is how much do we rely on them and how much do we depend on the Lord and the truth of scripture to fill us from within?
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled. Matthew 5:6 NIV
No one can know everything about us except God, and no one understands our deepest needs the way He does. God gave us others for friendship and fellowship but He did not intend for any human to take His place in meeting our deepest needs.
Our friends may abandon us when we’re going through a rough time because they don’t know what to say or how to ‘fix what’s wrong’ with us.
God promises that He will never leave us. (Deuteronomy 31)
Family and friends may say hurtful things to us that make us question their love. But God tells us:
“I have loved you with an everlastinglove;
I have drawn you with unfailing kindness. Jeremiah 31:3
We need others around us to support us, to challenge us and to bring joy to our lives. But the truth is, when we rely only on humans for our needs we will ALWAYS be disappointed.
The Lord is waiting to fill you with whatever your needs are today….a listening ear, a pat on the back, or the assurance that you are loved more deeply than you can know. May you reach out to Him and allow Him to fill you, pushing out the noise around you that may go against His truth.
And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:17-19 NIV
May your bucket be overflowing with His love, blessings and peace today!!
Paula
Paula Davis 