Filled to the Brim

"Jesus said to the servants, 'Fill the jars with water'; so they filled them to the brim."  -John 2:7

 A few years ago we helped some friends make wine.  It was a long laborious task.  Our part was to pick the grapes, then crush them.  After we left our friend had several more tasks to do before he bottled the juice and stored it while it finished becoming wine.

Jesus performed the task in a moment once the servants filled the jars with water.  Lilias Trotter uses the transmutation of the water into wine as an example of the "Divine Exchange."  She writes, "It seems to me as if the first thing we expect of God is that He will tinge our water with the wine of His power.  Then as we progress in our faith understanding we look for its wine, but feel it must still have an admixture of our water.  It is but slowly that we come to see that the mingling is not His way with us.  It is 'all weakness'--up to the brim--exchanged for His 'all power'....Undiluted weakness transmuted with undiluted strength."

Lilias has given me something to think about.  How often do I water down what God wants to do in my life?  I make excuses for why I can't or why I shouldn't, or why this or that.  Or it's maybe, or some other foot-dragging response.  The easiest response is to just ignore or pretend I didn't hear, or say I am confused, or don't know for sure.  All these responses water down God's power available to me in Christ.  When we become a Christian we enter into an exchanged life--ours for His with all its attending powers.  The thing is, because we are so used to living in fear, we continue to let fearful thoughts rule our actions rather than trusting the new life in us.

I am grateful that God is able if I am willing.