God is not pleased that you see your half-empty cup as half-full . . .  

He is not satisfied until you see it overflowing!

At this year's end, it is so easy to focus on what we lack or what we have not accomplished in this past year and miss what God has done and will do for us and in us. In his most famous psalm, King David writes about this very thing where he speaks of facing death and still having an overflowing cup. If you have ever read his life story, you know he had some major low points in his life before the world came to know him as the illustrious ancestor of the Savior. About one of his most difficult years, he wrote how God made “his cup” to overflow. Here it is in context:

“You serve me a six-course dinner
    right in front of my enemies.
You revive my drooping head;
    my cup brims with blessing.

                             From The Message, Psalm 23: 5

What this poet king is saying is that even in the worst of times, God has already showered his children with blessing and wants to give even more. Meanwhile, we are missing the point trying to improve our outlook from half-empty to half-full when in fact we are like George Bailey in It’s a Wonderful Life, badly in need of a reality check so we can see that the emptiness we focus on is beside the point. We already have so much, but devalue all that.

So, in this New Year, don’t settle for a half-full perspective when you can savor an abundant, overflowing life because of Christ, the Son of David.

Along with the wonderful things, God is doing in our ministry as we shared in our last post (Dec. 12, below), here are some of the family blessings Nancy and I are counting as our cup overflows.

(Clockwise) David, Nancy, Jessica, Joey, Matt, Monika holding Olive, Megan holding Sophie, and Josh.