365 Days of the Great Names of God, Day 269: Replenisher

Replenisher

"I will satisfy the weary, and all who are faint I will replenish." (Jeremiah 31:25 NRS)

Ever since I had the privilege of doing a study on the fruit of the Spirit—and more specifically, on the nine characteristics of that fruit—I've included a specific request in my morning prayers for my family: "Holy Spirit, please fill us with Your love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." 

Sometimes, I vary the wording on this: "please create within us new love, joy, peace..." or, "please well up within us fresh love, joy, peace...."

I pray this every day because I need the Holy Spirit to replenish His fruit in my husband, my children, and me every day. This neediness isn't because the Spirit's fruit is incomplete or imperfect; it's because it's meant to be "consumed." 

Life in relationship with God, set on the stage of this flawed world, is an ongoing, fluid, perpetual project. The Holy Spirit doesn't fill us with a lifetime supply of His fruit and then leave us to preserve it and spoon it out in tiny portions that are just enough to keep us going. Instead, I'm convinced He wants us to give that fruit away without reservation or hesitation in lavish amounts to everyone we come into contact with so that when we get up in the morning and start a new day, we're "faint" with hunger for more of Him and more of what He produces in us. 

This is God's radical economy: when we save, we are poor; when we spend, we are rich.

Come thirsty...and be quenched. Come hungry...and be fed. Come weary...and be satisfied. Come faint...and be replenished.