Sharon Norris Elliott: A Devotional

Filled

What do you picture when you hear the words “to fill”? I think of a container of some kind into which something is being poured. For example, I picture a mug being filled with coffee by a waitress; a bucket being slowly filled with sand by a child with a plastic scooper; and my gas tank receiving the precious over-priced liquid that keeps me rolling up and down the highways of Los Angeles.

In each of the above cases of filling, the containers are being filled from the top. The waitress is pouring the coffee, the child is scooping the sand, and I am pumping from the nozzle the last drop of petrol I can get for my money. When the pouring fills the container, we will all stop pouring, because if we keep pouring, the resultant spillage will be considered waste.

Filling doesn’t work that way with God. Jesus told the woman at the well, “…the water that I shall give… shall be… a well of water springing up into everlasting life,” John 4:14 (KJV). Wells differ from mugs, buckets, and gas tanks in that wells are filled as the substance flows up from the bottom rather than the substance being poured in from the top. And when God fills a well (i.e. one of us), the water (which could be joy, gifts, wisdom, understanding, discernment, etc.) will “spring up,” from a hidden source, becoming not waste, but a beautifully gushing fountain – the overflow intended to be enjoyed by everyone who sees it.

Let’s look at our devotional times a little differently from now on. Instead of thinking we are filling our heads with the knowledge of the Word so that the truth can then penetrate to fill our hearts, let’s shift the focus. Let’s now see our times of reading and prayer as opportunities for God’s love messages to us to spring up from the hidden Source within. Just imagine what it would like if our hearts were saturated with Him first before our brains were even able to comprehend what was going on? By the time the living water reached our heads, it would gush out of our mouths as anointed messages and praise – pure water from the Source.

Perhaps that’s what Paul was getting at when he said, “And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess” (filled by our own efforts from without); “but be filled with the Spirit” (filled by the gushing up of God from the inside) Ephesians 5:18 (KJV).

Be a well!

©2009 Sharon Norris Elliott
Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including the copyright line. For all devotions, comments, and questions, log onto Sharon’s blog at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com.

Sharon Norris Elliott: Veggie Fried Chicken Noodles

Use boneless chicken (you can get it packaged, already cooked or you can cook it yourself)
Olive oil
onion
garlic
Spaghetti noodles (the really thin wheat noodles are best)
Spinach
Artichoke hearts
Tomatoes

Heat a little bit of olive oil in a frying pan
Cut up some onions and garlic in the oil
Then add chicken to the pan and cook
Cook/boil the spaghetti noodles in separate pan

In another pan, cook fresh spinach in a little water, olive oil, and seasoning. Add artichoke hearts and diced tomatoes to the frying pan when the chicken is about done. When the noodles are done, drain, and add the noodles as well as the spinach to the chicken. Great meal.

Devotional: Sharon Norris Elliott

Farming

A seed looks nothing like the plant it will produce. Until a seed is planted, watered, nourished, and exposed to the light, it will just sit on a shelf or in a package and be – well – a seed. It will have a name – an apple seed, a mustard seed, a watermelon seed, etc. – but it will not be living up to its name until acted upon by those outside forces. The essence of its potential will always remain locked inside.

So it is with us human beings in relation to spiritual life. At our natural birth, we are but seeds, full of potential God has placed within us. However, unless we are planted in the right soil, watered, nourished, and given light, all that potential just stays bottled up inside. Some of us were fortunate to have been born into Christian families where all those elements existed from day one. As we grew, we easily allowed our sprouting leaves to turn toward the light of the truth of the Gospel; we soaked in the water of the Word, and were fed by the love that surrounded us. We came to our realization of our need for Christ early on and have followed Him faithfully. We are saved and are using our potential in His service.

Some of us, on the other hand, were born into not-so-ideal conditions. Our plots of land may have been rocky, sandy, or really shallow. Perhaps there was very little light, poison water, and no nutrients in the soil of our circumstances. We didn’t hear of the love of the Savior, or of His grace and mercy in dying for us so we could have eternal life. Still, the potential God intended was there – the potential to sprout into the man or woman of God He wanted us to be.

That inner potential – to be saved and to live lives pleasing to God – is why the Great Commission exists. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” Matthew 28:19-20 (NKJ). Every person is meant to be who God intended him/her to be – saved and serving Him – but it’s impossible to reach that full potential apart from God. Those of us who have realized what Christ has done for us must now reach out and do some “farming.” Making disciples is the planting, baptizing is the watering, teaching is the nourishment, and His presence is the light.

Well, why are you just sitting there? Get out into the field and do some planting!

©2009 Sharon Norris Elliott. Feel free to forward this devotion in its entirety, including the copyright line. For all devotions, comments, and questions, log onto Sharon’s blog at www.sanewriter.wordpress.com.

(photo/art source: Wikimedia Commons)