Overflow

Morning to all you Faithful Followers. Today I have the pleasure of making the devotion. I was thinking about it long and hard and I have four ideas and themes to discuss but this morning I woke up and I felt the urge to change to a different song!

Our devotions are to help share great praise and worship with people who may have not heard the songs, as well as encouraging you all in your walk with God! I need your words God. Every morning and every evening we seek to know you more. I commit this devotion to you Jesus, as only you can save lives and touch hearts.

Daily Devotion

“Overflow” the very catchy Tenth Avenue North song. I must admit I couldn’t stop singing it during my English exam yesterday. As you might notice, this is the second Tenth Avenue North song that to have a devotion. We aim for a wide range of songs and artists to help introduce some of you to more Christian music, but if God tells us to do a song we have got to do it!

‘Out of the dust…You created us…We are the breath of Father, Spirit, and Son…’ This is the opening of the song. It discusses our beginnings, how God has always been with us. Love love that flows to us is unfathomable! We are loved so unconditionally it doesn’t matter what you’ve done, because Jesus has died for you and he has set us all free from the grip of sin. This is where the most well known verse comes in, John 3:16- For God so loved the world that he his only begotten son, that who ever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Jesus has paid the ultimate price, living the life that we never could to set us free! And don’t be discouraged, just remember that the same power that rose Jesus from the grave lives in us. The same power! Let me tell you, all the forces of darkness were trying to keep Jesus down. Now that’s power!

What if I were to tell you all to not live for God? This is my next point, and I know some of you might be thinking that I am crazy but this is where the song is based. Mike Donehey, the lead singer in Tenth Avenue North, said ‘I think some of you need to not live for God, until you learn how to live because of God.‘ And I think this is a very true message. Some of us run around chanting and shouting “Live for God” when that is not the point! Mike talks about some of us trying to love God without experiencing the overflow of love in our hearts. So as you try to love God, you don’t end up loving him back, but instead love him for the very validation he has already given us! Romans 5:5- The love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. We don’t have to try to make this love well up inside our hearts, because the Holy Spirit lets us experience it every day. His love is poured into us, poured in to overflow!

‘Life is our gift that we give back to You…’ Life is a gift in itself! We don’t need to prove ourselves worthy. I will always remember what this one man once said to me, he said, ‘With Christianity, it’s the only group where the only requirement is the unworthiness of the candidate!‘ And it is so so true. We don’t need to be musical, we don’t need to be good prayers, we don’t need to be good speakers either! I look at Moses in the Bible. He is one of the most amazing, God fearing men in the whole Bible excluding Jesus. Moses wasn’t perfect though, he had a stutter but God used him to speak to millions, and he was a murderer but God still used him. God can use all of us, in different ways for sure, but we have to remember ‘…Life is our gift…’ so let’s give our lives to Jesus. He can do the most amazing miracles with the smallest things, like feeding five thousand with only five loaves and two fish.

So as I finish today’s devotion, I want to challenge you all, myself included, to stop trying to live for God, we stop trying to do things for God, we stop trying to earn Gods approval and instead we just live because of God. Just let his love overflow in your lives. He went to that cross and took our sin and shortcomings, he did that so we could be loved by God and so we could live because of God! ‘You set our hearts in motion…You’re alive inside us…Our hands open up…We are made in the image of a perfect union…We receive Your love and overflow…’

God I thank you for your love that sets us free, that sets me free! I am so grateful, please help me live because of you, let your love overflow in me to my friends and my family, to the lost and the broken. All we need is you, when we need strength and guidance we pray for your love. Thank you Jesus, please help us to ‘…to live like grace is covering every step…’ as we walk with you everyday of our lives! Amen.

God Bless you this weekend. Live to the Overflow!

The Faith Filled Friends