Life's Sweet Wine
Life is all about love. There is a hierarchy of priorities when it comes to our love. Love of God must come first and foremost, even above our wife or ourself. If anything (anything at all) finds itself coming before our love for God, that is what the Bible calls an ‘Idol’. Idolatry is one of the great evils. So God comes first.
Then comes your wife/husband. “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her...” Ephesians 5:2
After that comes family, friends, and strangers. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” Philippians 2:3
God, then Spouse, then Family, then Friends, then even the strangers, that leaves only me, the last person on earth to love the very last. Do not confuse me here though, this is not to demean yourself. Self-deprecation is not healthy nor is it good or condoned here in the slightest. Nor is it in the Bible. Remember our two greatest commandments?
“Love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. And the second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31
(And everyone is your neighbor)
It says to love your neighbor as yourself. That does not mean belittle yourself so as to put others higher than yourself, but take how high you deem yourself and put others higher still, your friends higher, your family higher still, your spouse higher, and God highest of all.
But how can this be physically done? How is this possible? If you take all the love for yourself, and give more than this to others how in the world are we supposed to be able to love more than we are able to love? Let me illustrate. On our own strength, there is no possible way we can love like this.
Imagine you have a cup you carry around throughout life, this cup carries your love. Your cup is only so full, this is the capacity of your love (and we all know our love has limits). Everyone else around you has a cup too, but their cups are empty, for they need your love. Try to imagine going to each person and trying to fill up every cup with your limited supply. It cannot be done. Not only can you not fill all their needs, but you cannot even fill one persons needs sufficiently. In our own strength there is only a drought of love.
But there is hope, for love comes from God, and by His strength alone can this be done. Now imagine this, instead of trying to do this upon your own strength, which is impossible, rely on the one who makes the impossible possible. Here is the analogy again.
Now imagine you bring the people around you close together, and you begin by taking their cups and stacking them up (in the hierarchy we spoke of before), like wine glasses on display, only the open rims are facing the open air. Then you take your own glass and place it on top, not because you place yourself first in line, but because you wish to give to them. Then you ask God to pour out His love, and God takes his eternal love and overflows your cup with sweet wine. It overflows your cup, spilling over the side and begins to fill up the cups beneath it. Those cups begin to overflow and the wine continues to flow so that all the cups are filled to the brim with much surplus.
And there you see that when you rely upon God, God can overflow your life in such a way that you can fill all those around you with selfless true love that satisfies and at the same time does not diminish your own love or self worth as a child of God.
Life is all about love.
Love of God.
Love of All.
Will you choose to love today?
Jared Williams
Then comes your wife/husband. “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her...” Ephesians 5:2
After that comes family, friends, and strangers. “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” Philippians 2:3
God, then Spouse, then Family, then Friends, then even the strangers, that leaves only me, the last person on earth to love the very last. Do not confuse me here though, this is not to demean yourself. Self-deprecation is not healthy nor is it good or condoned here in the slightest. Nor is it in the Bible. Remember our two greatest commandments?
“Love God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. And the second is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.” Mark 12:30-31
(And everyone is your neighbor)
It says to love your neighbor as yourself. That does not mean belittle yourself so as to put others higher than yourself, but take how high you deem yourself and put others higher still, your friends higher, your family higher still, your spouse higher, and God highest of all.
But how can this be physically done? How is this possible? If you take all the love for yourself, and give more than this to others how in the world are we supposed to be able to love more than we are able to love? Let me illustrate. On our own strength, there is no possible way we can love like this.
Imagine you have a cup you carry around throughout life, this cup carries your love. Your cup is only so full, this is the capacity of your love (and we all know our love has limits). Everyone else around you has a cup too, but their cups are empty, for they need your love. Try to imagine going to each person and trying to fill up every cup with your limited supply. It cannot be done. Not only can you not fill all their needs, but you cannot even fill one persons needs sufficiently. In our own strength there is only a drought of love.
But there is hope, for love comes from God, and by His strength alone can this be done. Now imagine this, instead of trying to do this upon your own strength, which is impossible, rely on the one who makes the impossible possible. Here is the analogy again.
Now imagine you bring the people around you close together, and you begin by taking their cups and stacking them up (in the hierarchy we spoke of before), like wine glasses on display, only the open rims are facing the open air. Then you take your own glass and place it on top, not because you place yourself first in line, but because you wish to give to them. Then you ask God to pour out His love, and God takes his eternal love and overflows your cup with sweet wine. It overflows your cup, spilling over the side and begins to fill up the cups beneath it. Those cups begin to overflow and the wine continues to flow so that all the cups are filled to the brim with much surplus.
And there you see that when you rely upon God, God can overflow your life in such a way that you can fill all those around you with selfless true love that satisfies and at the same time does not diminish your own love or self worth as a child of God.
Life is all about love.
Love of God.
Love of All.
Will you choose to love today?
Jared Williams
