The Place of Overflow

Over the past few months, I have often thought about the ‘place of overflow’ the Lord promises us in His Word. How do we live from a place of overflow? How do we sing like David?
`You have anointed and refreshed my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy and unfailing love shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell forever [throughout all my days] in the house and in the presence of the Lord` (Psalm 23:5-6).

How often do we hear the remark that "life happens”? These words often downplay a sad or traumatic event, and people use it to indicate that we should just deal with whatever happened and get on with our lives. We may often say this to ourselves.

But I’m not so sure that this is something the Lord would say to us. His heart is to help us and bring restoration if we choose to put our hand in His hand and walk with Him. The Lord also won’t rush through our feelings or brush us aside. He knows exactly where we are at and what is going on inside of us - our confused thoughts, our twirling emotions and the fears that have become exhausting.

We can even ask Him to help us trust Him. He understands that this is difficult for some people because of deep pain in their lives. Just take one step and ask for His help. He promises to `set my feet on a rock, making my steps secure` (Psalm 40:2, HCSB).

Going back to David - when we read about his life throughout the Old Testament, we notice that it wasn’t exactly a life without troubles and heartache. Despite all this, he still managed to praise His Father and sing to Him in the midst of his battles. One can’t help but wonder how he managed to live from this place of overflow?

One thing we do know is that David definitely didn’t ‘bottle up’ his emotions and just move on. He poured his heart out before the Lord, as we read in the psalms, always turning to God as his Deliverer and Saviour. We often make the mistake of thinking that we should first sort ourselves out, be healed, reach this or that goal, or have a life without problems to be able to draw near to God, enjoy life and have our cups brimming.

After a few weeks of journalling and waiting on the Lord, I came to realise that the place of overflow isn’t some goal to reach, or even a skill to attain. The place of overflow isn’t somewhere ‘out there’ in a perfect world. It`s found while sitting at His feet and spending time with Him. It’s Him in me. Jesus is the place of overflow, and He lives in me (1 John 4:13). From this place of being with the Lord, David could sing: “For with You is the fountain of life; in Your light do we see light” (Psalm 36:9 AMPC).