Allow me to do a bit of “out loud” thinking while I have my morning coffee…
As I was praying recently and asking the Lord if I could (figuratively) share the air He was breathing, I got to thinking of what a truly awesome and good God He really is. I love that He “gets” me. He knows everything there is to know about me – my character, mannerisms, humor, preferences, strengths, weaknesses, all of my thoughts, what makes me laugh, what resonates, what makes me mad – and He loves everything about me! Does that sound shocking or arrogant? Trust me, it isn’t because I’m so “easy to love”. It was in this moment when I thought how great it would be if I were to know Him that well, too. How great it would be if I “got” Him the way He got me!
This got me to thinking once again of filling, or being filled. Who would not want to be “filled” with all those wonderful intimate things about God? My mind ran over to picture a newborn baby, and imagine how they are a completely empty vessel just waiting to be filled with anything and everything. Thoughts, impressions, patterns, knowledge, emotions, skill developments… Zipping from that thought over to the filling of the Holy Spirit, I pondered how we so often want to be filled “in the moment”, but reflecting on the newborn and likening that to a newborn Christian, my mind began to dwell on the daily choices we make that “fill” us over a lifetime of choices.
Zipping once again over to a person who, over a lifetime of choices, continuously chooses death over life… By that I mean all the choices they make – not just bad choices but also including all the ones that on the surface appear to be beautiful and right – any choice outside of God Himself (no matter how beautiful or smart or luring or intriguing) is a choice opposite or contrary to life. It is a choice that ultimately leads to death (which is existence apart from God).
Have you noticed that your ability to recognize these choices isn’t as under-toned or subtle as it once was? More and more it is apparent. Some are so filled with hate and evil that the demons driving their thoughts, torturing their beings, pressuring their behavior, have so far pushed the soul down it is barely visible. What often is visible (for those who care to see it) are what I call “hollow eyes” – a pool of pupil so dark and distant there is hardly any color or light at all. So heartbreaking!
Zipping again to scriptures that allude to all of us having a “measure”… such as 1 Thessalonians 2:15-16; Genesis 15:16; Daniel 8:23; Matthew 23:32. Each of those point to a measure of sin. Well, wouldn’t that imply the measure is a measure regardless of what fills it? A scale is a scale no matter what sits on it, right? So the “measure” in these scriptures, to me, implies that the filling could go both ways. Sin or Spirit (holiness). Darkness or light. Discord or unity. Hate or love. Death or life. The interesting thing to notice is, whatever you fill your life with, there really are only two basic choices – everything outside of God, and everything inside of God.
What happens when a person reaches their full measure? There is no turning back.
Lord, I choose You. I am yours. Thank you for dying for me so that I could live in You. I pray, daily fill me with everything that is You – not just for the moment but throughout my lifetime so that everything “death” is fully displaced and I can reach my full measure of all that is You. Amen
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Alabastersky 
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