I find myself revisiting all the Disney classics lately. That’s what happens when you have a three year old. Lily and I were watching a Winnie the Pooh episode the other day when Winnie was yet again trying to get another smackerel of honey from the honey jar. He says, “Oh bother! Empty again…only the sticky parts left!”
Immediately I got this image of most Christians trying desperately to serve their lives away operating only on the “sticky parts” of their honey jar. Their jars are emptied of the smooth flowing sweetness which God provides in abundance. Instead, they are trying to run off the power provided by hardened junk at the bottom of the jar.
Have you ever grown weary doing good? I have! It’s my cue that I’m trying to accomplish God’s will by my own power. I want to do good, yet I haven’t taken the time to fill with God’s goodness. I’m trying to scrape the goo off the bottom and make it taste sweet.
There is only one way to keep your honey jar perpetually filled and that is to be consistently getting filled by God. We need to be resting in Him, reading and studying His Word, praying to Him, partaking of His blessings, claiming His promises, and basking in His love. The more we fill up, the more honey there will be to give away.
One caution here is to avoid the opposite from happening, we fill our honey jars and then keep the goodness for ourselves. Honey left on the shelf doesn’t do any good to anyone. It will simply rot over time.
Jesus told us that if we ABIDE IN Him, meaning put our relationship with Him first before all things, then we will produce much fruit. I’m talking more than just doing a 60 second devotional each morning. I mean praying, talking, studying, seeking, asking, and knocking on a consistent basis. When we do this, our lives will be overflowing with honey.
We need to allow God the time and space to love on us. He wants to show us in miraculous ways how true His love is. When we continually experience God’s love, we won’t be able to help giving our lives to others. We won’t be able to stop serving them. It will simply flow from experiencing God’s love in our own lives.
So, how full is your honey jar?
“I am the Vine, you are the branches. When you’re joined with me and I with you, the relation intimate and organic, the harvest is sure to be abundant. Separated, you can’t produce a thing.” John 15:5 The Message