Hi. My name is Sandy, and I have a problem. I hold onto containers, and precariously pile them into the cabinet in case I need them later.

This may be a trait I inherited from my mother. I don’t know. I just know whenever Sissy and I visited Mom’s house, Sissy went through Mom’s containers like a wild woman. She made sure everything had a matching lid, and threw out whatever didn’t.

Yes. I know. My cabinets could use Sissy’s intervention. But I wonder. Is it possible in all my messy saving of containers, it might be biblical?

Several scriptures come to mind where I think this may be true. Instances where it was a good thing to have a few extra containers in the cupboards.

Abraham was told he would have descendants too numerous to count. More than the grains of sand on the shore. No amount of containers would be able to hold them.

Do you remember the widow in 2 Kings 4? Creditors threatened to take her two sons as slaves to pay her debt. She went to the prophet Elisha. He told her to go to all her neighbors and ask them for empty jars. Then she was to fill the jars with oil.

When she reached her last jar, the widow asked her sons for another, but there were none left. That’s when the oil stopped flowing. The jars of oil were sold to pay her debt. Those jars of oil saved her sons from slavery.

Sounds to me like it would have been good for her to have extra containers in our cabinets.

God’s mercies are new every morning. There aren’t enough containers in the world to hold them. There isn’t enough ink or paper to record them. We are told God’s blessings will be poured out on us. We will receive a full measure, pressed down, and overflowing.

Paul tells us we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives.

Sissy may be disciplined enough to limit the number of containers she saves, but not me. You never know when you might need one or two more.

And I’m thinking, it really could be biblical.

While I can’t say for certain whether having extra containers is a good thing, one thing I can say for certain. We’ll never have enough containers to hold all the many rich blessings God bestows on us each and every day.

Do you have more containers in your cabinets than you really need, or do you hold onto a couple more, just in case?

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There’s more to come: We continue to shout our praise even when we’re hemmed in with troubles, because we know how troubles can develop passionate patience in us, and how that patience in turn forges the tempered steel of virtue, keeping us alert for whatever God will do next. In alert expectancy such as this, we’re never left feeling shortchanged. Quite the contrary—we can’t round up enough containers to hold everything God generously pours into our lives through the Holy Spirit! Romans 5:3-5 (MSG)

You can find my May Inspire a Fire post here. Please stop by and read it.

I wish you well.

Sandy

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This post first appeared on this blog January 12, 2016.