Part two in a three part series.

Allen:   Last month we asked you to evaluate the relationship you have with God.  Do you know Him on that personal level or do you just know about Him.  Recently I got to see one of the best illustrations of how God works in our lives.  Our church had an open forum for our high school kids and the parents could sit in.  So my wife and I wanted to check it out.  This guy started with a couple gallon jars and in a basket were some golf balls, coffee grounds, pinto beans and some water.  He explained that the jars resembled two different peoples lives.  In the first jar he filled with the Golf balls.  Then he told us that he had written scripture on these golf balls.  He explained that they weren’t just any scripture but they were scriptures of the most important blessings that God would want in your lives.  Like love, joy, and piece to name a few.  He had about 20 of them.  When he was through putting them in he asked how many people thought the jar was full. He then took the pinto beans and started pouring them in the jar.  He shook it and they filled up the cracks in between the Golf balls.  He explained that the beans represented the necessities of life, cars, clothes, food, shelter and several other things.  Then he asked again if the jar was full.  He took some coffee grounds and showed them to everyone.  He then proceeded to tell us what the coffee represented.  I don’t recall the exact word that he used so I will use a little “cowboy terminology”.  The coffee represented all the CRAP in our lives.  The stuff that really doesn’t matter, the he said, she said stuff.  The stuff that makes our lives miserable.  Then he started pouring it in the jar.  He stopped and pointed out that he couldn’t get much of it in there.  A little fell through the cracks but not much.  Then he looks at everyone and says now its full right!  Everyone said yes, and then he took out the jar of water that represented the spirit of the Lord.  He poured in the whole quart of water and looked at us and said “There is always room for the SPIRIT OF GOD”.

Clay:    That is such a great analogy!  I have been at that place in my life where I only gave God the small part of my jar! Getting to know God is a learning process.  I would give God only one small place at first.  It seems like it took me time to realize that I was in a lot better hands in Gods hands than my own.  But it was a process that took time, and I have probably not completely and fully conditioned myself to the process in its complete form.  If you walk with God for 80 or90 years as you live your life out I don’t think you ever reach total perfection in your perception or willingness to fully give everything to God.  I have read some writings of some people that have come close to reaching that complete oneness with God.  In the Bible there were only two people, Enoch and Elijah that had such a oneness with God that He took them from earth to be with Him.  This kind of relationship comes by having complete faith in God.  We as a society tend to put things before God instead of putting God first in our lives.  When we do this we don’t see the good things God wants four us in our lives.  Our lives end up empty or chaotic with turmoil.

Allen: That’s right!  The second part of this illustration explains this beautifully!  He took the other jar and explained that this was what most people do.  He poured in the coffee, which took up about half the jar.  Then he poured in the beans.  He started putting the golf balls in and it was plain to see there wasn’t room for many of them.  He looked at everyone and said “Looks full Huh”.  Then he took the quart of water and poured it in the jar.  There was always room for the spirit of the Lord.  What is sad about the second jar is a lot of people have so much crap in their lives that there is no room for the GOOD things of God in their life.

Clay:    We are not going to get all the crap out of our life until we learn to have faith. Faith is like stepping out on the limb and your thinking that the limb is going to break but the word tells you its not going to break.  And it tells you to step out a little further and I will show you what I can do.  That has been an ongoing process for me over the last 20 years of having a relationship with God.  I have had to commit to learning the word and applying it to my life.  Throughout our walk with God I don’t think that process is ever going to change.  He just keeps leading us farther and farther down the road showing us how much we can trust Him and how much He can do if we keep going.  We have to keep applying the principles and keep trusting and relying on Him.  The whole process means that we get closer and closer to God.  We know Him more intimately in each and every turn and triumph He leads us through.  This is what makes our relationship with God so exciting and rewarding.  You always hear the cliché of a Christian that you find the real piece that surpasses all the understanding and the real joy that comes with knowing God.  That’s exciting!!  That’s what God wants for us!

Allen:   God wants us to come to Him with everything in our lives.  When we give something totally to God and we see how well God handles our problems we begin to trust in Him more and more.  This builds the faith.  But you have to take that initial step and go out on that limb.  The book of John is a good example.  I’ve been reading the book of John over and over for the last few months.  I’ve been thinking a lot about what it would have been like for his disciples to drop everything and go with Jesus.  I’m sure they found it hard to leave their families and lives.  But they took that initial step and followed Jesus.  I’ve also been thinking about how there relationship grew over the three and a half years they were together.  How close they had to be with Him and the impact He made by revealing Himself little by little to them.  God can make that kind of an impact on our lives if we let Him.  I think sometimes we make things harder than they really are.

Clay: In Mark, Jesus tells us how to apply faith. After He withered the fig tree, His disciples wanted to know how He did it!  (Mark 11:22-24) “Have faith in God,” Jesus replied ²³“I tell you the truth, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will happen, it will be done for Him.  ²⁴ There fore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”  We have been raised in a world where we have to see it to believe it.  God doesn’t work that way.  He wants us to believe it before we see it! Last month I mentioned Hebrews 11:6 “He who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”  In other words you have to apply your faith and your best foot forward before the mystery of God is revealed to you.  A simple way of putting it is it takes faith to open the door!  You can’t sit back and think what is God going to do.  You have to open yourself up first and then He will come right in.  He will open your eyes and He will lead you.  It is through those small increments of growth, where you choose to step out on that limb and trust Him. That is when you will grow closer to God.  It’s those small things that you are reluctant to give up.  When you give those things to Him, He shows up in full force.  And you realize that there is a loving and caring God that is in control of that place, if you give Him control of it.  But that only comes through FAITH.  Only the power of the word of God has the power to overcome.  A lot of this comes from dealing with ourselves and our perception of God.  The farther you go the simpler it is.

Allen:   For us to really receive the good things from God, we have to truly believe that is what He wants for us.  If you will read the word then you will plainly see that is what He truly wants.  The world tends to confuse us by conditioning our minds to the worldly things.  So we start putting faith in everything but God.  By doing that we are filling the jar with all that crap, and we are not giving room for God’s gifts.  I challenge you to take that step and have faith in God.  When you do that He will reveal Himself to you!  And your relationship with Him will grow.  I encourage you to read the word and see the good things God wants for you!