Today’s Bible Verse

Now may God, the fountain of hope, fill you to overflowing with uncontainable joy and perfect peace as you trust in him. And may the power of the Holy Spirit continually surround your life with His super-abundance until you radiate with hope!

Romans 15:13 (TPT)

Fill Me Up

Before self-serve gas stations, we would fill up our cars at the gas station.  When the attendant approached our vehicle we said, “Fill it up,” or sometimes we said, “fill me up.”  This meant don’t hold back; don’t put just ¼ or ½ or ¾ but fill it to the top…till it could overflow.  We wanted the gas tank to be full, so the car would go the distance and not go dry.  I would look at the gas gauge just to be sure that what we asked for, we received,  a full tank.  I remember someone telling me when I first started driving, “As soon as your tank gets to ¼ tank, fill up with gas.  Don’t let it go down to empty or too low before filling up.”

How many times have we allowed our spiritual tanks to go to ½ tank, ¼ tank, or to empty?  Are there other things filling your heart, your spirit, and your soul?  What are those things that are filling you that shouldn’t be?  There are warning signs, triggers, and indicators that help us to determine if we are running low and need to “fill up.”  

For example, how do we respond to the calling of God on our lives? to God’s direction for our life? to our Pastors’ instructions? to Godly leadership?  How do we respond to those inside and outside the church?  

How do we respond to people (our spouse, our children, family, friends, leaders, disciples, on the job, etc.)?  How do we respond when confronted with something uncomfortable? to devasting news? unexpected news? health challenges? financial challenges? relationship issues?  

These are all indicators of the status of our spiritual tank.  But here’s the good news: all we need is to go to the well and “fill it up.”  Go to the Word (daily devotions), to prayer, to the presence of the Lord, and allow His Word, His presence, His power, and His Love to fill you up.

One of the ways we are filling up as a church is with our 24-hour prayer.  Imagine, filling the atmosphere with faith-filled, powerful, consecrated, sanctified, and surrendered prayers.  We are focused, intentional and purposeful in our prayer because we are believing for the “More.”  Together we can do “More,” and we will do it because we are the church!  Colossians 3:16 tells us to “Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives” (NLT). 

There is a worship song that always resounds in my spirit, and it is titled, “Fill me Up” by Tasha Cobbs Leonard.  I remember the first time I heard this song in our church, how I cried out from the depth of my spirit for that ongoing, continuous filling.  I cried out from deep within my spirit, “I’ll provide the sacrifice,” “and I will open up inside.”  The lyrics of the song remind us of what we must do daily to stay filled with God, His Word, and His power for our lives: 

“Fill me up” by Tasha Cobb Leonard

….You provide the fire

I’ll provide the sacrifice

You provide the spirit

And I will open up inside….

….Fill me up God

Fill me up God

Fill me up God

Fill me up…

….We need more of you

I’ve been running on empty

I need you to feel me again

We cry out for more

We cry out for more….

…More of your spirit is what we need, more of your anointing, more of your glory, fill me

Fill me up God (fill me up God)

Fill me up God (fill me up God)Fill me (that’s what I really want)…..

(Pastor Donalee Pang)

Change My Story

There were times that I knew I was running on low.  I could tell by my attitude and reactions to things.  I wasn’t responding rightly; I was reacting, taking things personally, and being easily offended.  When I surrendered to the Lord, He helped me to realize that my heart was being occupied with other things, and it was crowding the spiritual things I was pressing for.  I attended an Encounter and came to the Lord with an open and repentant heart and re-committed my heart to the Lord.  Filling up is not a one-time thing; it must be first thing in the morning (Psalm 5), and it must be daily, sometimes 3-4 times a day if necessary.  Just a little will not do it.  We must go for the more!

Today’s Declaration

Father, today I recommit my heart to You.  I repent and ask You to forgive me where I’ve occupied my heart with other things.  Today, I commit to fill up all the time.  I will not go on empty.  There is too much at stake.  The Lord needs me to minister the gospel and to win souls and make disciples.  Only when my heart is filled with Your presence can I be truly obedient to Your calling upon my life.

Today’s Bible Reading

• Old Testament: Nehemiah 3; Proverbs 10:1-16
• New Testament: Luke 16:10-18; 1 Timothy 6:11-21