Overflow
Do you find yourself tired of helping and serving others, or you feel burned out like you’ve giving all you can? It could be because you are not serving out of the Spirit’s overflow. You are serving out of your own reserves. Jesus said for whoever believes in him “rivers of living water will flow within (John 7:38).” Referring to the Holy Spirit. We need to be filled by the Holy Spirit through spending time with God, and then as we are filled we serve out of that overflow, otherwise we will keep draining the tank until there is nothing left of us to give. We will get frustrated, burned out, unsatisfied and often give up, thinking God has asked us to do too much. But God doesn’t ask us to do too much, we do that to ourselves by failing to say “no” to that which God did not ask us to say “yes” to. We become like Martha when Jesus went to her and Mary’s home (Luke 10:38-42). She was “distracted” and “worried and upset about many things” thinking she needed to do everything for Jesus, except Jesus never asked her to do those things. Meanwhile Jesus praised her sister, by saying, “Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken from her.” What was Mary doing? “Sitting at the feet of Jesus.” Being in relationship with him, learning from him. She wasn’t doing nothing, she was doing precisely what was most important in that moment.
Spending time with Jesus, listening to him, getting our daily fresh bread and water from him is necessary to fill us to overflowing. If you feel like you are running on reserves, how is your relationship with God? When are you spending quality time with him? When are you getting filled by him? Serving others is good, but we first need to begin on our knees to be filled and equipped by him, and then we can serve and give out of the overflow.