A Cup That Overflows

Living in biblical joy when our cups feel empty

I don’t think most would expect an article about joy to start with life can really suck, but that’s exactly what I’m opening with. Life can really suck. As many blessings as God has poured into my life, I’ve felt this, and you probably have, too. I’ve had moments of pain where I’ve prayed through tears, asking God “why”. You’re not the only one. And no, your faith is not weak because you’ve had those moments, too.

It is undeniable that pain exists and that as human beings, we are subject to feeling gut-wrenching, aching, and doubtful feelings. Yet, in Galatians 5:22, the fruits of the Spirit are listed, and one of them is joy. In fact, the book of the Bible known for joy, Philippians, was written from the darkness of prison. On a jail cell floor, Paul wrote, “Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice”, in Philippians 4:4.

It then stands to reason that even in our moments of praying through tears, wondering where God is, and struggling to pick ourselves up, we worship a God who is all about steady and unchanging joy, no matter the circumstance. Some of the clearest insight we have into the joy God holds us together with is found in Psalm 23:5:

“You prepare a table for me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.”

With closeness to Jesus, our cups overflow even when we’re running on empty. We have the gift of Jesus-joy! So how do we live by it?

Before beginning, I want to clarify that living in a cup that overflows is not about turning off your feelings and forcing joy in your hardest moments. It’s not about giving yourself a pep talk and expecting everything to be okay again. Humans feel feelings. We feel raw emotion, and that doesn’t negate our faith. It’s the product of living in a world that has veered very far from God’s original design for it.

The strongest reasoning behind not allowing feelings of non-joy to stir guilt is simple: Jesus felt the same feelings you do. He is no stranger to suffering. Isaiah 53:3 paints a clear picture of this for us:

“He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain…”

Please don’t feel guilty in the moments when you are hanging on by a thread. Jesus felt that pain, too, and He died to make a way for this pain to end.

Earth contains pain because even the God of the universe felt it during his short time in human flesh. It spares no one. However, God didn’t come to Earth to live alongside us just to confirm what we already know about suffering. He came to completely strip our eternity from it. He came to promise us an “enough is enough.” Jesus came to limit pain to the years we live on Earth, which will feel like a blink of time compared to the eternity of perfect, whole joy ahead of us. Jesus died to give suffering an expiration date.

In the scope of forever, our lives on Earth are short, even when it feels like all we know now. This doesn’t exactly remove the pain we’re feeling in this moment, but what it does is give us a formidable hope and joy knowing that we are simply passing through the stretch of pain, and our forever home is a place where tears aren’t shed. Psalm 84:4-5 says:

“What joy for those who can live in your house, always singing your praises. What joy for those whose strength comes from the Lord.”

We are on a walk through time that ends, and all that ending does is deliver us to our Father’s House, where joy is inescapable, and we never cease singing His praises. What a gift and joy that our pain expires. What a gift and joy that Jesus’s life of sorrow and sacrifice laid the bricks on the path to a painless eternity that we couldn’t have granted ourselves. He went before us to give us a joy that truly only comes from His love and grace. That’s why Jesus is a God of joy, because His pain created the joy we stand on. Jesus gave us a reason to rejoice for the billions and billions of years ahead of us, all because He repurposed His pain. Jesus bled so we don’t have to. We were designed for an eternity. Earth is the speck of time it takes to arrive there.

However, we’re still on Earth now, and God is still a God of joy on this side of Heaven, too. C.S Lewis frames the fact that our souls that long for eternal joy, that still pass through Earth first, as this:

“Our Father refreshes us on the journey with some pleasant inns, but will not encourage us to mistake them for home.”

Being eternity-focused and understanding how temporary our pain really is reframes our timing to more closely fit God’s timing. But joy can start now, too. It should start now.

Jesus also experienced joy on Earth. Our walk with Jesus should always result in us loving more like Him, thinking more like Him, and acting more like Him. This also means the closer we become to Jesus, through actively seeking Him and creating time and space for Him, the more the things that made Jesus joyful on Earth will also make us joyful. That’s the gift of Jesus-joy! So how do we live in that now?

Jesus experienced the most amount of joy when the lost were brought into His love alongside others. One of my favorite chapters in the whole Bible is Luke 15 because when the shepherd lost one sheep of his many, he saw such power and meaning in one that he didn’t rest until that sheep was found. It’s such a beautiful display of how Jesus pursues us. The end of this parable, however, gives us a really special insight into how Jesus experiences joy. Luke 15:6 says:

“And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, ‘Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.”

Jesus finds joy in seeing His children healed, invited into community and communion with Him, and rejoicing, knowing the Cross changed that soul’s posture of joy forever. This shows us two ways we can cultivate joy now:

Gather and rejoice with others.

Be a vessel of joy, healing, belonging, and invitation to the people around us.

We were made to live life in togetherness. We were made to live a life of reflecting God’s love. If Jesus found joy in gathering, feasting, and celebrating with people He loves, then so can we. If Jesus finds joy in being light amidst darkness and carrying God’s purpose of restoration, hope, and healing in the world, we are made to find joy in that exact light-bearing. Giving joy to others simply creates more for ourselves.

In the same way, the more joy we seek, the more we find. Consuming Jesus and consuming joy help us to notice the blessings we frequently overlook. For example, my days started to look a lot different when I began thanking Jesus in the morning for everything He poured into me before even leaving my bed: the breath in my lungs, Jesus dwelling in my heart, and allowing me to be a part of a day that has His purpose in it. Proverbs 4:23 defines why this is biblical:

“Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

One day I’ll write an article without this verse in it, but today is not the day! Jesus places importance into what we consume because it so heavily shapes how we think and practice gratitude. What we fill our hearts with deeply matters to God. I saw this in my life when I used to watch crime shows. I loved the mystery and case-solving component of shows like Criminal Minds. However, I became so paranoid. I was scared of people and places I didn’t at all need to be scared of. What I was consuming really started shaping my heart. When Gilmore Girls replaced my crime shows, life became much more lighthearted!

However, what really changes our hearts is consuming Jesus. God’s Word gives us hope. Listening to testimonies reminds us of God’s faithfulness. Even small swaps and habits like using your commute to listen to joyful worship music makes a huge difference in our ability to walk in a cup that overflows.

I recently started listening to upbeat worship music first thing in the morning. I am naturally prone to worrying, and anxious thoughts, and the tendency to over-plan used to jolt my mind into overdrive immediately upon waking up. My entire day now is shaped around the impact of beginning my day with intentional practices of joy. The song I’m listening to now in the morning is literally called The Joy. I am now less prone to worrying, able to express gratitude in short prayers throughout the day, and able to experience an inspiring joy when showing love, patience, or kindness to others.

You may be moved by different habits, but you are invited into the same joy that Jesus died for you to have. The steady and sovereign joy that is promised in an eternity with Jesus can start now. The heaviness in our world that feels so consuming will always try to compete with your joy, and sometimes it may feel like it’s winning. But what the world can’t give, it can’t take away. We live in our Father’s house, where pain doesn’t exist; we are just on a walk to arrive there. Yet even in this speck of time, we can experience what it means to have a cup that overflows, even when we’re running on empty. Nehemiah 8:10 says,

“...for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

That is a promise for you. That is a joy and strength Jesus intentionally offered to YOU. I pray that in each moment of your life, you are able to experience the joy that the Cross promised you that the world can’t take away, no matter how hard it tries. Jesus is with you. Jesus feels your pain with you. Jesus promises you forever joy. I pray that His joy dwells in your heart as you dwell in His house.