How to Live a Faith That Overflows, Ripples, Wildly Explodes
Then on the most important day of the feast, the last day, Jesus stood and shouted out to the crowds—“All you thirsty ones, come to me! Come to me and drink! Believe in me so that rivers of living water will burst out from within you, flowing from your innermost being just like the Scripture says!”
John 7:37-38 TPT
Faith is like a fountain. It’s not supposed to be contained, but rather contagious. Wildly, outrageously exploding, overflowing, rippling out beyond us.
But if you’re anything like me, somedays you want to keep your faith between just you and God. Private. Out of sight.
Maybe you don’t want it to be the first thing people know about you. Or the thing you’re always talking about.
You don’t want to be full of empty words.
Or to feel guilty about the discrepancy between your words and actions.
I get it. I’m not high on the extrovert scale. I understand wanting to keep quiet, not wanting to draw attention, not wanting to make life any more complicated.
But John 7 isn’t a list of shoulds and must-dos. It’s a loving, grace-filled invitation to full, meaningful relationships with God and the people around us. It’s God’s heart and best plan for us wrapped round with His heart and best plan for the rest of the world. It’s where us and them intersect—and suddenly there is no line, no distinction, just a whole lot of people who are wholly loved by a God who can’t stop thinking about any of us.
Containing changes the flavor.
Have you ever left a few dishes in your sink overnight? In case I’m the only one, let me tell you that sudsy water left to soak in a pot overnight doesn’t smell like soap the next morning. Water begins to stink when it stops moving.
Our faith, like water, isn’t meant to stay still. But when we keep it out of sight, tucked away in a neat box and labeled private, we limit movement. We contain what God never meant to be contained.
And like water, our faith changes when it stops flowing.
We find it harder to hear God, see God, trust God.
We begin to trust ourselves and other things, and the posture of our hearts slowly shifts. Little sprouts of self-reliance and pride begin to break the surface. At first, they are small and seem to not disrupt anything.
But eventually, they make our walls higher. We start to box God in where we want Him and keep Him out of where we don’t want Him.
We convince ourselves we don’t need others to know our needs, strengthen us when we’re weak, keep us accountable when we’re struggling.
Those walls keep going higher, creating more distance between us and God, us and others.
But it doesn’t have to be this way.
“Be like a river. Be open. Flow,” wrote Julie Conner. And I imagine a river, like the one we saw in the Smokey Mountains on a chilly spring break morning. We meandered along its side, hands shoved deep into our pockets, marveling at the serene beauty.
I love the sound of moving water. The creeks that burble, the waterfalls that crash wildly onto rocks below, the fountains that dance a synchronized rhythm.
It’s the most peaceful, healing sound. It reminds me how near God is and how indescribably creative He is.
And this, this my friends, is a picture of faith that overflows.
It’s teeming with life and beauty. It’s refreshing and alive. It quenches thirst. It produces growth.
As we lean into a missional lifestyle, our goal is for our faith to be alive, growing, overflowing and spilling onto the lives of those around us. While this may not be where many of us begin, it is our trajectory. It’s where we’re heading.
Many of us will start small, with one tiny decision at a time to begin to opening our hearts and lives to God and our neighbors.
We’re about the direction more than the pace.
So we lean in, invite God in, invite others in close enough to be privy to the things God is growing inside us.
And one day we’ll take a step back and take notice of the little ways our faith has had a ripple effect.
We’ll see people we are leaning to love well. Friendships deepening. Community forming.
We’ll see the areas in our lives we’re now walking in freedom, and how it’s helping others in their journeys too.
Truth is that sharing our faith doesn’t mean being loud, pushy, or judgmental. Quite the opposite, in fact.
A faith that is freely rippling out beyond us is rooted in love, grace, and compassion. It reflects the heartbeat of our heavenly Father. It mirrors His relentless love for those around us in natural, organic ways.
How do we get there?
Let’s look at Jesus’s words in our passage from John 7 again: “All you thirsty ones, come to me! Come to me and drink! Believe in me so that rivers of living water will burst out from within you, flowing from your innermost being just like the Scripture says!” Jesus gives us some practical steps for living a faith that overflows, ripples, wildly explodes.
First, we name our thirst. We identify our lack, our need, our empty.
Next, we come close. We nestle in near the One who meets our every need. He is our answer. Our freedom. Our thirst-quencher.
Then we drink. Deeply. We taste His goodness, life, peace, freedom. We open our hearts to receive what He longs to gift us: Himself.
Once we’ve tasted, the next step is to believe. Believe Jesus is who He says He is. Believe He does what He says He’ll do. This is where our head aligns with the tug on our hearts. We’ve tasted and seen, and now we respond.
The last step—the one where the life Jesus pours into us is abundantly more than we can contain so it overflows—is not about what we do. It’s really not about us at all. It’s being open to receive, open to release, so the love of God flows through us. It’s Him within us that touches those around us like a steam of living water.
Our job is to believe Him. Let Him in. And let what He’s doing inside us show.
The shift is that we see the things God does inside us as not meant only for us. So we invite others in close enough to see the way we’re still a work-in-progress, still being shaped into something beautiful in God’s hands. We become honest about the things God is still working out in our hearts and lives. We give God the glory, praise His name in the presence of others. We own our mistakes, name our need, freely apologize and forgive.
And then our faith can ripple out beyond us, the wild love of God free-falling onto those near us.
Friend, the overflowing was always part of the equation. God fills us, but it’s not just for us. He longs to give us more than we need precisely so it overflows onto those all around us:
But I have come to give you everything in abundance, more than you expect—life in its fullness until you overflow!
John 10:10b TPT
Let’s pray.
Jesus, may we know how deeply we need You, and how deeply You satisfy. May we draw close, again and again, because we can’t get enough. May we open our hearts and lives so You can not only fill us, but flow through us, touching our neighborhoods and communities too.
Just a friend over here in your corner,
10 Things You Might Be Doing That Keep Your Friendships Shallow
(+ 1 Simple Habit to Shift Your Direction)
If you long for deep, meaningful relationships, this is for you!
Change your actual life in less than 5 minutes per day!
You can change your actual life in less than 5 minutes a day because baby steps truly can change the trajectory of your life. If you want 2021 to be the year you actually start living on mission in your neighborhood, this little book (available as a paperback and on Kindle) will help you get there. Each of the 30-day devotions takes but a few minutes to read, but they will lead to lasting life change.
