Overflow

Love of God, overflow. Permeate all my soul...

Man...is God ever so faithful in answering our prayers. Oftentimes, I have to laugh at what I've prayed and then how He's delivered. Especially when the prayers being prayed are for testing, preparation, and discipline. Today, God definitely allowed me to be tested and took me into the nooks and crannies of my own heart.

For most of my day today, I worked at Blessingdales Downtown--a local thrift store. I had a resident with me. Upon arriving, I knew that we wouldn't have a bathroom because of toilet issues. Well, when I got there, I was delightfully surprised to see how the toilet seemed to now be working. Not for long, though. Mid-way through the day, a customer informed met that there was some trouble with our toilet. As I approached the bathroom, I began stepping in water (and God only knows what else). I opened the door and the bathroom was covered in wetness. Not just a little bit, I might add. Sloshing was occurring. The hallway was beginning to get covered. I quickly turned the water off and started cleaning up the mess. Needless to say, I was a bit overwhelmed.

As this isn't my first experience with cleaning a bathroom "mess," and since it's happened frequently over the past couple of months, it has had me asking God what He might be trying to say to me.

A couple of weeks ago, God gave me a picture while I was in prayer for numerous people: There was a child sitting in his own crap and eating it (quite happily, I might add). My first response was: Gross! God then went on to tell me that this is what many of his children are doing right now. They have HUGE messes, but instead of choosing to get washed off in a bath of His grace through repentance, they are choosing to stay and delight in their crap. Not only that, but they are choosing to eat it--trying to get it to satisfy, instead of "tasting and seeing that the Lord is good" (Psalm 34:8).

Put that into my experience today, and I believe that God is saying something similar: The mess of others affects all those around. And those who are spewing up, are left cleaning--defending the faith. Something else is occurring as well: My water is submerging the gunk and cleaning it out--purifying my Church to the fullest. I AM Living Water. I am the source of life that can only satisfy.

All of this is to say, turn from your sin--NOW! Repent. "If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and forgive their sin and will heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:14). I am saying this over myself as well. We are in desperate need of Jesus and the power of His Holy Spirit to move over our lives. Let us not be satisfied with "lesser lovers." Let us be satisfied in Jesus alone.

And the Lord shall guide you continually and satisfy you in drought and in dry places and make strong your bones. And you shall be like a watered garden and like a spring of water whose waters fail not.

-Isaiah 58:11

Be not discouraged, but be encouraged by the One who is able to do so much more than we can think, say, or ask. I have been listening to this song and it's been a bit of a prayer on my heart. May it be the prayer of your heart.