And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fulness of God.

(Eph 3.17&18)

Keep me safe, my God, for in you I take refuge.

I say to the Lord, “you are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.”… Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure. The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.

I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure, because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead, nor will you let your faithful one see decay.

You make known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

(Ps 16.1,2,5-11)

You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

(Ps 23.5&6)

What shall I return to the Lord for all his goodness to me? I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord. I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the presence of all his people.

(Ps 116.12-14)

Sometimes we ask if a person is a “glass half-full or half-empty” type, meaning to learn if they look on the positive or negative side of life.. but in one sense surely all those who believe in Jesus as Saviour must be neither of those things! We are those for whom our glass is continually full to overflowing, because we have been delivered from darkness into light, forgiven and cleansed, and set on the path to eternal glory – and all by the abundant goodness of God in Jesus. And absolutely nothing can ever separate us from Jesus again, no matter how grievous or inexplicable.

Our ‘salvation cup’ is completely full, because Jesus has done everything on our behalf and holds it out to us so that we might accept his priceless gift and come home to God our Father. There is no room in that cup for our good works, our piety, our bible knowledge and habits of devotion – Jesus’ perfection has filled it. All we are able to do is to lift the cup in grateful worship, and praise to the one who gives it to us, exalting his name and doing all in our power to honour and make him known!

Our ‘love cup’ is completely full, because God has chosen us to be his beloved children – chosen and saved, adopted and assured eternally of our place in his kingdom. While we live in a sin-sick and darkened world, we may meet with rejection by others, our relationships will be flawed, and death will come to wound our hearts. But, the love of God is greater than all other loves combined, and has no interruption, no corruption, nothing to diminish its power in our lives to nourish, sustain and transform.

How marvellous, how wonderful, to be the object of divine love; to be the recipient of grace and to know as my Father, the Creator and Sustainer of all things. How astonishing, to have personal communion with the immortal, invisible and only wise God, and to find as I approach the great I AM, that I am met not with the deserved devouring fire of judgement, but with the voice of love, the outstretched arms, and the eternally-patient, forgiving heart. And this is all through Jesus, my pioneer, my elder brother, my shepherd, my champion, my master and my friend.

Heavenly Father, author of the plan of salvation and creator of all that is, I praise and worship you today today; make me glad to overflowing so that guilt and shame are washed out, since there is no room for anything but the joy of being thus beloved, saved, secured and cherished. All through Jesus my Lord, your Son, Amen.