Treasures of the Transformed Life Stewardship Series

Week Six:  Filling the Bucket to Overflowing

Today begins the last week of our congregational study that promised to support us in identifying our thirst for more and to show us how to experience more as we (re)commit ourselves to relationship with God.  We give thanks for each who wrote in the Messenger for the series Derek Lang, Laura Chan, & Frances Fong.

Over the last six weeks, we have explored the treasures of a transformed life:

• Preparation - We’ve been invited to “prime the pump” to enable God’s life-giving water to course through us.  We do so by recognizing our thirst and longing for more and (re)committing to God and our relationship with God.  Mathison writes, “If you give God more of yourself, he will give you more of himself” (p.12).  Does that sound scary or exciting?
• Prayer - We’ve been invited to regularly “draw water” by talking to God.  Mathison calls prayer more than “a list of things we want; it is actually a means to partner with God in his work” (p.65).  Isn’t it amazing to know that the God of the universe, our God, knows each one of us by name and is longing to talk with and partner with us?
• Presence - We’ve been invited to commit to showing up and being part of Christian community...not because we have to, not because it’s our habit to, but because we really want to.  Mathison shared this by giving us the image of “jump in with both feet.” 
• Giving - We’ve been invited to release “our” money “back into God’s atmosphere” to honor our master and to continue the cycle of blessing in our life.  Mathison points to the words of Jesus in the gospel according to Matthew: “Give as freely as you have received.”  We give freely just as if we were tossing “pennies in the fountain.”
• Service - We’ve been invited to serve because in doing so we become “more flexible,” our gifts are strengthened, we’re reminded that “God is constantly at work around us,” and most importantly, because “it allows us to be more like Jesus.”

Today, we enter the last week of this series.  In this last section, “Filling the Bucket to Overflowing,” Mathison invites us to consider: “What are we going to do with all of this new understanding” that has come to us through our reading, reflecting, sharing, learning and praying?  He invites us to consider how we’ll put our learnings into practice.  He writes, “[Spiritual maturity] not only takes time, it also takes discipline” (p. 282).  But this is the promise: “[If] your dream is for a transformed life, one in which your spirit overflows with the goodness of God, you’re going to get there.  You’re going to know the taste of that living water that satisfies your thirst like nothing else can” (p. 309).
May your week of Thanksgiving be filled to the brim with remembering and lifting up the goodness and generosity of God.  May your remembrances cause your heart to sing.  And may the song of your heart illumine how you might take hold of these treasures God has given.

Blessings of Grace & Peace, Emily