Poured Out

No one escapes spillings!  I’m talking about those incidents at the table when a tea glass or cup of milk is turned over.  There's the sudden and mad dash to soak it up before it runs into someone’s lap or into the crevices of the table and eventually onto the floor.  We’re talking chaos and confusion!

 

Spiritual spillings happen, too, but can be avoided.  There’s a definite difference between something being poured and something being spilled.  Spillings happen by accident, causing chaos and confusion, but to pour is a more deliberate and calculated act.  Paul writes, “For I am already being poured out as a drink offering …” (2 Timothy 4:6).  Consider the Bible heroes such as Moses, Joseph, and Daniel and the trials they faced.  Why [do you suppose] we don't read of them falling apart or coming unglued in the fire?  Perhaps it's because they'd already had a private crisis where a change of personal will had taken place.  Psalm 118:27 says "bind the sacrifice with cords to the horns of the altar," which implies a deliberate and disciplined act of giving up one's personal will to the will of God.  It's that "living sacrifice" we read about in Romans 12:1.  This becomes the clear and distinct spiritual contrast between the chaos and confusion of being spilled out and the peace and joy of being poured.  Have you been through the fire recently?  Was your response more like a spilling or a pouring?  It's good to take note of this because none of us escape the fires of life, and neither do we know the fires yet to come – and, they will come!  It’s with confidence we have a God Who is all-knowing and all-powerful, and He’s promised to lead us through the fire unscorched and unburned (Isaiah 43:2).  Trust Him and submit to Him, and be ready to be poured out.