It Is The Spirit Who Gives Life…

It Is The Spirit Who Gives Life…

Pausing long enough to give our God Almighty thanks for what He has done in our lives seems to be something that can be easily overlooked. We should be grateful for all we have and we should pause, regularly, to thank God, in the name of Jesus Christ, for all the promises and blessings that have been showered in and over our lives. We have what we have because of the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. We have sanity in our lives because of Him. We have love, Light and breath in our lungs because of Jesus Christ, not because of anything we have done.

Our prayer time, just like Jesus outlined in the Sermon on the Mount, should be about praise, should be about worship and should be about thanksgiving, not the next thing that Jesus can do for us.

There is a new song being played on the radio or your favorite stream and the chorus goes like this…

Fill my cup, Lord
Run it over
Give me love, give me joy, give me peace
Fill my cup, Lord
Run it over
I am your child in need
Lord, I need you to fill my cup ~ Fill My Cup, Andrew Ripp

With a simple modification to this song it will change to praise instead of wanting…

[You’ve] Filled my cup, Lord
[You’ve] Run it over
[You’ve] Given me love, given me joy, given me peace
[You’ve] Filled my cup, Lord
[You’ve] Run it over
I am Your child in need indeed
Lord, I need You to fill my cup

The same flow to the song, the same rhythm, the same everything with one exception – it’s not about what Jesus can do for me, it’s about Jesus Christ has already done for me. Big difference.

This is what we learn in John 6 where the “groupies” are constantly asking, pleading for another “show”, another blessing, another hand out. They are so self-centered they can’t even see the bread of life is, literally, standing right in front of them. They can’t see, or experience, the Living Water that has quenched their thirst forevermore. Is this how we want to live?

When then look around our lives and see our basket is not filled every minute of everyday and we cry out to Jesus for more and more and more and more, instead of simply thanking Him for the basket He has provided, the basket He built into our lives for us to give praise and worship to Him for what He has already done in and for our lives. No, we demand more – “Fill my cup, Lord – run it over.” Instead of You filled my cup, Lord, You ran it over, I am Your child indeed; thank You for peace, thank You for love, thank You for forgiveness.

Are we eating the Bread of Life or are we eating manna from heaven?

As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven—not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever.” ~ John 6:57-58 NKJB

If we lose a tooth it is one of thirty-two. Are we not grateful for the remaining thirty-one? Are we not grateful that we can still eat, we can chew and we are not sick and ailing because we lost only the one and not all? Should we be grateful for this situation or should we complain about what has happened? How are we suppose to look at something like this happening in our life?

Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?”
When Jesus knew in Himself that His disciples complained about this, He said to them, “Does this offend you? What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. ~ John 6:60-63 NKJB

We should be grateful, offering praise and worship for all that we have not what we do not have.

Either the Scripture is the divine Word of God teaching us how to live and how to be a reflection of God, or it’s nothing more than a historical account of events.