Episode 03: Pour from the Saucer
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LISTENING TIME: 16:25
Hi, welcome to Episode 03: Pour from the Saucer of the Let’s Grow Podcast with Bree Blum!
Today’s episode will help you to look at a familiar passage of scripture with new eyes, which will help you to learn to fill your own cup so that you can pour from the overflow into others. PLUS, there’s an exciting announcement that you don’t want to miss!
Intentional Filling
The Lord of the Rings
The Harry Potter Series
The Chronicles of Narnia
The Eagle and Child, Oxford, UK
Alan Rickman
Dame Maggie Smith
Benedict Cumberbatch
York Train Station (curved entry)
Matthew 6:25-27, NLT
Matthew 6:28-31, NLT
Matthew 6:32-33, NLT
Warwood United Methodist Church
Psalm 23, ESV
Psalm 23, The Voice
The Intentional Filling Sisterhood
Pour from the Saucer Bible Study
Transcript of Episode 03 : Pour from the Saucer
You Can’t Pour from an Empty Cup
Have you ever seen those YouTube videos of children learning the news that they’re going to Disney World? They often open a gift of something Disney related, like Mickey or Minnie ears to clue them in that they are about to be flying off to the happiest place on earth.
Have you ever seen this same reaction from a 25 and a 30-year-old? Not quite as YouTube-worthy, but possibly just as entertaining.
For Christmas one year, my parents wrapped up envelopes that contained the news that my brother and I would be going to England for two-weeks, just the two-of-us. There were immediate yelps of glee, and just as quick as the five-year-olds in the videos, there were also tears of joy.
To my family, England tops Disney World. I mean think about it, its where literary geniuses wrote The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, and The Chronicles of Narnia. It is where you can visit pubs with quirky names, such as “The Eagle and Child” in Oxford where two of the three aforementioned series were penned.
It is home to some brilliant actors such as Alan Rickman, Dame Maggie Smith, and the lovely Benedict Cumberbatch. It’s also where you can get real Cadbury chocolate, the kind that melts between your fingers before you can raise it to your mouth, and definitely not that knock-off stuff we find in the aisles at Easter.
But honestly, to my family, visiting England almost feels like going home.
My great-grandfather grew up in a quaint home in the Yorkshire countryside before he joined some of his brothers in making the trek across the Atlantic to settle in Wheeling. He and his bride returned to his homeland for their honeymoon, of which details of their travels, my great-grandmother captured quite beautifully in her journal. She wrote of their visit across the ocean and how their captain called for a moment of silence as they crossed through the waters that buried passengers of the Titanic just a year before.
She also described the unique curved architecture of the York train station in such delightful detail that as Andy and I waited for a train there, nearly 100 years later, I could pick out the unique characteristics that so many of the other travelers were certain to overlook, as they hastily made their way through the station en-route to their next destination, barely looking up long enough to catch the eye of a passerby.
Can’t we all relate to their hurry? There are things to do, people to see and errands to run. There’s no time to stop and enjoy the way that the station curves as it accommodates the entrance of the rails coming from around a bend. There’s no time to sip tea with cream or enjoy the fragrant English gardens. Life is much too busy.
The kids need new shoes and your parents are coming over for dinner and the house is a wreck.
The bills sit on the end table awaiting their corresponding checks and the sink is piled high with dishes.
Life seems to run at the speed of the trains racing through the English countryside.
If it weren’t for the splash of coffee that we manage to swallow, oftentimes scalding hot because we don’t have time to allow it to sit and cool, we don’t know how we’d make it through the day.
Whatever happened to stopping to smell the flowers?
Whatever happened to resting and being still?
We run from appointment to appointment at break-neck speed and wonder why our doctors complain that our blood pressure is too high and that we need to take better care to get the proper nutrients our body needs. And to lay off the Starbucks.
The hurrier we go, the behinder we become. We lack the time to build true and lasting relationships. We struggle to focus on the task at hand. And we feel empty inside, even though our calendars are jam-packed full.
And we’re expected to keep on giving. But how?
How can you possibly share anything from your empty cup?
The answer is you can’t. You can’t pour from an empty cup.
I don’t expect you to make something out of nothing. And neither does God.
Jesus reminded His disciples (and us) that God will fill us up when we’re bone dry and empty; we need only to look to Him.
In Matthew 6, starting in verse 25 in the New Living Translation, Jesus says,
“That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life – whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?”
Jesus’ twenty-first-century paraphrase is, “That iced chai latte from Starbucks is not what is going to get you through today, God is. He created you for a unique and vastly important purpose, so don’t doubt that He’ll see you through all the ups and downs.”
“And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?”
Matthew 6:28-31, NLT
God created each of us in His image and delights in us. Before the fall there wasn’t a need for clothing. We weren’t designed to desire designer handbags and shoes. We were designed to desire Him.
“So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.
Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”
Matthew 6:32-33, NLT
God knows your worried thoughts. He knows the amount of that bill that is waiting for you at home. He knows of the health concerns that keep you awake at night.
He knows that there’s not enough hours in a day and not enough money at the end of the month.
He knows.
And He hears you when you call on Him.
Let’s take a moment and raise our empty hands to Him and ask Him to be filled up again.
Oh, Lord, how majestic is Your name in all the earth!
Father, we are humbled to be given access to You. To come to You in our need. Jesus, we thank You for making a way for us, for tearing the veil with the shedding of your blood so we could be given a glimpse into the holiest of holies. Holy Spirit, we welcome You now. Restore our dry bones. Let us feel You work in our hearts as You make room to fill us to a place of overflowing. We thank You for Your presence. We thank You for hearing us today and tending to our needs. We love you and praise Jesus’ name. Amen.
As a child, I attended Sunday School, but it wasn’t until I was a grown woman that I was able to see Jesus in the words of scripture. The beautiful thing about God’s Word is that no matter how many times you read a passage; it never becomes stale. It still has the potential to refresh the deepest parts of you, even decades after reading it for the first time.
I remember standing in front of a chalkboard in a Sunday School classroom at Warwood United Methodist Church at the age of maybe 8 or 9. We would read the words on the board and then turn around and try to recite them.
Round and round we’d go until we were dizzy from spinning and the number of words swimming in our heads. But eventually, it stuck.
“The Lord is my Shepherd;
I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside still waters.
He restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness
for His name’s sake.Even though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
For you are with me;
your rod and Your staff,
they comfort me.You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil;
My cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall
follow me all the days of my life,
and I shall dwell in the House
of the Lord forever.”Psalm 23, ESV
The 23rd Psalm was written by the shepherd-king David. The very same shepherd-king that slew a giant. And his poetic words are the very first pieces of scripture that I committed to memory. They are also the six verses that have served as my life vest as I’ve battled with my own giants named anxiety and depression.
You have probably read these verses countless times. It’s often read at funerals, so it may have lost its luster. I want you to read it again from a different translation called, “The Voice”, but this time I want you to picture yourself sitting outdoors among the rolling hills of Bethlehem.
Picture the scene that may have been before David as he wrote to our God.
The Eternal is my shepherd, He cares for me always.
He provides me rest in rich, green fields
beside streams of refreshing water.
He soothes my fears;
He makes me whole again,
steering me off worn, hard paths
to roads where truth and righteousness echo His name.Even in the unending shadows of death’s darkness,
I am not overcome by fear.
Because You are with me in those dark moments,
near with Your protection and guidance, I am comforted.You spread out a table before me,
provisions in the midst of attack from my enemies;
You care for all my needs, anointing my
head with soothing, fragrant oil,
filling my cup again and again with Your grace.
Certainly Your faithful protection and loving provision will pursue me
where I go, always, everywhere.
I will always be with the Eternal, in your house forever.
Psalm 23, The Voice
That was the 23rd Psalm, possibly as you’ve never read it before. I hope it was the 23rd Psalm as you’ve never experienced it before. New, rich, and inviting!
Did you see the lush meadows and the flowing streams? Did you feel His presence as He reached down to fill your cup again?
What gets me about these six verses, more than anything, is that it seems to provide a sense of calm over everything. The passage speaks so intimately of being in the presence of the Lord. It provides every reason to pause, to rest, and to receive that fill-up we so desperately need. In six verses, we can receive the restoring of our souls.
Let’s break down these six verses, so that we can truly receive the filling that the Lord wishes to provide for us through them.
[Sponsored Message]Aww, friend, thank you so much for tuning in today to hear a portion of the
Pour from the Saucer Bible Study that will be released this Saturday, August 1st!!
As you just learned, it will also be included in our Sisterhood Membership which is now open for you to sign up and join… so if you sign up today, you’ll get a copy of the Bible Study before it officially goes live in our shop. Eeek!! Can’t wait for you to read the rest of it. It was a blessing to write and I pray it is a blessing to read as well!
You can become a member by going to intentionalfilling.com/sisterhood
As always, thank you for tuning in today on the Let’s Grow Podcast! Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review on Apple Podcast (preferably 5 stars, hint, hint!) and I’d love for you to join us on Facebook and Instagram by searching for Intentional Filling. We’d love to connect with you!
Be sure to also check out our show notes for all the links that I’ve shared today.
Much love and virtual hugs, my friend! We’ll see you next time. Keep growing!
