I begin each morning with a hot cup of coffee. I love sipping on my favorite mixture of coffee beans and flavored creamer, breathing in the lovely aroma of a coffee house while still relaxing in my jammies. I don’t sip it from an insulated, travel cup either. No way! I like to drink from a good old fashioned coffee mug. The kind that has a large, round mouth to it, is made from solid, kind of heavy, ceramic or stoneware. You know, those cups that you can hold up to your mouth and nose and feel the warm steam as you take a sip. Ahh… bliss!
The downside to this lovely experience is that in this kind of cup, your coffee will cool down faster. If you don’t drink it rather quickly you will eventually need to reheat it. This is exactly what happened the other day. I took a few sips as I journaled during my quiet time with God but then got distracted by something shiny and wandered away from my half drank cup of coffee not just once, but three times!
Each time I returned to my cup, I rewarmed my coffee in the microwave so I could pick up where I had left off and continue to enjoy my drink. But I noticed after each reheating, the taste of the coffee was changing. The flavor was no longer vibrant, the aroma had faded, and the reheated coffee mug burnt my lips just a little. My coffee had become stale.
You and I can become stale as well. Anytime we choose to skip spending time with God and just rely on yesterday’s anointing, we lose our vibrancy! We become less impactful, less effective, less in tune with people around us… we become stale. Before we know it, we’ve gone from a welcome infusion of comfort and energy to a lukewarm mixture in an overheated cup – ouch!
God longs to spend time with us every day. Not just in the morning (although that’s an excellent way to start your day) but He wants us to engage in Him throughout the day as well. He longs to infuse us with His energy, perspective, strength, guidance, wisdom… all of it! Just as our bodies may grow tired and need a late afternoon pick me up, God is overflowing with all we need to infuse us with His goodness. But left to our own devices and without a regular refill of His grace and strength we become stale, ineffective, bland, and even can burn those around us.
It’s time to take a personal inventory, examine what’s in our cup, and turn to the One who can fill us to overflowing for our good and His glory!
Be blessed!
Jennifer
“Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always.” 1 Chronicles 16:11