My coffee this morning is sweet and light brown with creamy additions. There are no grounds to speak of and I am enjoying it. I am grateful for it’s smooth texture. I hope my conversation is as sweet and smooth, but I know that on my own I am far from able.
Just like my coffee, I need a filter to make it so.
This morning I prepared my coffee, set the filter into the machine and let water pour over it to make it something new.
If I don’t do the same, allow His Word to pour over me, allow myself to steep in it, allow the filter of the Holy Spirit, His cautions, His insights, His wisdom to allow nothing of myself to leave my mouth, but only the rich aromatic fullness of Christ. Then I can offer something to others, then I can serve, then I can warm cold hearts.
Too often I try to do it on my own. Impressed with my own deductions and pronouncing myself wise, I open the valve and let everything pour down the chute. My points may be valid, my thoughts may even be celebrated, but every bit of myself that is in them is useless. I am too often spilling over with insight that is me, flavored with Jesus. If I am to be useful for the kingdom though, I must only be Jesus, colored to look like me and with my particular flavor of expression and experience used to His glory.
Without a filter to keep out the idle chatter, I am sure to produce a bitter taste. Lining the bottom of a cup with grounds only worthy of being tossed. Sadly, there is no way to take in the good of what is in a cup when the grounds are there. Even the good becomes unacceptable due to the gritty texture.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:9
Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 1 Corinthians 1:25
He must increase, but I must decrease. John 3:30
But I tell you that every careless word that people speak, they shall give an accounting for it in the day of judgment. Matthew 12:36
How critical to believe these words. As a wife, encouraging my husband with Scripture and building into his life a security that my mouth will speak truth that he can trust. As a mom, teaching my children from the Word and not simply from my ideas. I want to cradle them with Truth and Love that cannot fail them, nurturing them in a joyful environment built on a foundation that has little to do with my insight and everything to do with the wisdom of God.
Every morning I pour out a fresh cup, every morning I must remember, Truth is meant to be shared, while grounds are meant for dismissal.
That’s a good word.
GOOD WORD, Sister!!!! I needed this!