A Bottle in the Ocean

A.W. Tozer

...To know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled
with all the fullness of God. --Ephesians 3:19


Pentecost means that the Deity came to mankind to give Himself to man, that man
might breathe Him in as he breathes in the air, that He might fill men. Dr. A.
B. Simpson used an illustration which was about as good as any I ever heard. He
said, "Being filled with the fullness of God is like a bottle in the ocean.
You take the cork out of the bottle and sink it in the ocean, and you have the
bottle completely full of ocean. The bottle is in the ocean, and the ocean is
in the bottle. The ocean contains the bottle, but the bottle contains only a
little bit of the ocean. So it is with the Christian."

We are filled unto the fullness of God, but, of course, we cannot contain all
of God because God contains us; but we can have all of God that we can contain.
If we only knew it, we could enlarge our vessel. The vessel gets bigger as we
go on with God. The Counselor, 68.

Offer this Prayer:

"Enlarge my vessel, Lord, and fill me with more and more of the fullness
of God." Amen

Often I find that the problem I have is that I neglect to "take the cork out of the bottle" and end up getting tossed about on the waves in the midst of the storm of life. When you float on the surface you are alone and helpless, you have nothing to hold onto, no stability. When you "take the cork out" and allow yourself to be filled with the "ocean" that is God, you not only sink into the ocean, you settle to the deepest point where you rest peacefully on the ocean floor, immersed in and filled with God's love.

Rmember every day to make this prayer your's and "take the cork out of the bottle". Marty

National Assoc. for Christian Recovery

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NACR Daily Meditation for Monday, Aug 18, 2008

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"So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled"

1Thessalonians 5:6

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The first step toward honesty is to pay attention.

In the words of this text, the choices we face are either to sleep or to be alert and self-controlled. There are days when we would rather 'sleep'. There are days when the emotional numbness of denial seems less painful then the alertness required by recovery.Couldn't we just 'let it ride' for a day? Couldn't we just 'sleep' for awhile? Sometimes people encourage us to 'sleep'. "Why are you still paying attention to that? It was a long time ago!" Or "Why are you still 'holding on' to that? Just forgive and get it behind you."

Wouldn't it be great to get this over with quickly and not have to pay attention to it anymore?

There is a rest, a serenity, that comes from God. But it comes from 'alertness', not from 'sleep'. God's peace is not like the 'sleep' in this text. This sleep is denial, it is avoidance, it is distraction, it is pretending, it is death. Being alert means that we allow ourselves to see and hear, to use our senses and mind and heart. It means that we pay attention to what is happening inside of us and around us. The text urges us to be alert, to pay attention. Pay attention, it urges, even if life is painful, even if it is not what we want it to be.

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Lord, help me to pay attention today!

Help me not to put my feelings to sleep.

I want to be aware of my thoughts and feelings, Lord.

I want to be able to experience both the pain and joy of life today.

Help me to pay attention.

Amen.

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Copyright 1991 Dale and Juanita Ryan