Archived Daily Manna | Rejoice Fellowship | A mission to release people to rejoice in the world.

Message: We all know the metaphor of a glass being “half empty,” because any glass that is half-empty is by definition also “half full.” But when we think about our lives from day to day, and in some cases even during our prayers, most of us slip into the half-empty trap. If we have ambition, there is something we have not gotten that we intend to get: money, or social status, or piety, or a spouse. It can be something as petty as wanting a slightly better car or a new refrigerator, or something as great as a kid in the slums wanting to become President of the United States (or Prime Minister, or whatever applies). Most people, especially when they are younger, have some idealized notion of what they would like to become, which is something “better” somehow than what they are. And it is not just the young. Even very old people usually have at least some sort of ambition, often for a child or grandchild. It is our nature. Thus even if a person’s glass is completely full, instead of simply being happy with a full glass, much of the time the we will find a bigger glass! Having a life of satisfaction thus becomes impossible. No matter what we have, we want more. We are a glass that cannot be filled. Here’s a joke: Do you know what you call a man with 900 million dollars? “A frustrated billionaire.” Christianity has a lot to say about all of this. First, of course, the fact that finding true fulfillment in this world is impossible, for it is a world filled with sin and ruled by Satan, which God will eventually destroy. Second, the various sorts of sin that come as a result of trying: covetousness, greed, envy, etc. But let’s dig a little deeper. Father glorify thy name There are two other wrinkles to the notion of fulfillment in life that change when we become Christians. First, we must see that no matter how big or how empty we feel our glass to be, God’s grace is greater. There is a limit to how much we can want; there is no limit to God’s ability to fill it, if it is Him we want. The universe, the sum total of what we call “reality,” is vast beyond human comprehension. If we want the entire earth and everything in it, there are another 100 billion planets in our galaxy; and if we had all that is in our galaxy, the are another 100 billion galaxies in the universe, give or take a billon or two. And yet, God is greater than this. God is greater than the universe. And if we imagine a larger universe (and this is, admittedly, becoming utterly ridiculous) — God is yet greater. We cannot imagine infinity. We can say what it is, but we cannot really grasp it. For we are concrete and so are our minds. We cannot grasp the nature of infinity, and we cannot grasp the full power of God’s grace. It exceeds not only the sin we can commit, but the sin we can imagine. God is, therefore, sufficient. And if we understand that we have the Grace of God, there is no possibility that our glass is not completely full; 100%, right up to the very brim. The second wrinkle is our praise of God, as opposed to our petitions to him. This brings us back to Psalm 103. We might pray tonight that some illness we have will be healed; yet how can we possibly devote a corresponding amount of time to thank God for the diseases we do not have? We might pray for something concrete, like enough money to pay our rent this month. But how can we spend a correspondingly large amount of time to thank Him for what we do have? It is impossible. We owe Him thanks for every breath of air we take, every drink of water we drink, every second when we do not go flying off into space because of the gravity we take for granted. God asks us to make our needs known to Him in prayer. He does not tell us why, really, except to say that He loves us. Perhaps one reason, though, is that by asking for something we want, we might realize a fraction of what we have, and give Him praise.