Walking With Christ

Blockages are usually bad. If there is an unintended blockage in something, then we will often see systems fail to work the way they are supposed to. If the hose on the vacuum is closed it won’t pick up the dirt that it should. If a sink is clogged then the water and other stuff won’t drain properly. If a river is clogged then we will often see floods. Arteries that are clogged can cause all sorts of physical problems. Clogs and congestion are typically bad for just about any system.

What defines a blockage?

Anything that prevents the proper flow or utility by means of foreign objects coming to rest in unintended places. The Oxford dictionary called it “a thing that blocks flow or movement, for example of a liquid in a narrow place”.

With that as a base definition, can a cup have a blockage?

Absolutely. If you intend to use the cup for water but there are rock in the cup then you won’t be able to get the same amount of water in the cup. The rock constitute a blockage because it prevents the full amount of the desired liquid from flowing into the glass. They are blocking you from using the cup as intended. What about sand in the cup? Sand would also be a blockage. What about coffee? If you want water in the cup, then coffee is a blockage.

How do you regain full use of the cup? Remove the blockage. Dump the rocks, sand, or coffee (gasp), then rinse the cup out and refill with the desired medium.

Where am I going?

Psalm 23:5 You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; you anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows.(ESV)

God will only fill the cup according to the room that we make. If we only make a little room then we will only get a little. It will still be overflowing, because that is how good our God is, but the amount we get in our cup is entirely dependent on how much room we make in our cups. Carefully get rid of the junk in the cup and pour out all of the good stuff so that He can refill our cups to overflowing again and again. The more of the junk we clean out the more of the good stuff we are capable of pouring out to make room for Him to refill us.

Here is where most people stop. They think they only need to work on the one cup. They think there is only one place where a blockage can occur. No, we have a lot of cups. There are emotional, spiritual, physical, and financial cups as well as many others. Keeping the junk out of one cup does not mean moving it to another cup for safe keeping. No, by all means, get rid of it. Give it to the Lord and let Him show you how best to completely rid yourself of the wasted space. Every aspect of our lives can be likened to a cup. The more cups we keep clean and devoted to holding the promises, blessings, and gifts of God the better off we will be. There are even some people who have cups that have dust in them because they have given up on even using that particular cup. Give it to God and let Him fill every cup we have with blessings.

Pride, unforgiveness, and fear are among the biggest blockages to the spiritual cup. What are some concrete ways that we can begin to remove some of these blockages? Prayer, confession, seeking accountability, counseling/therapy, or even life groups/small groups can be the beginning of the cleaning process. It can take years to fully get to the root of some issues depending on how tightly we cling to them. Other issues can be relieved and washed away in the blink of an eye. Don’t worry if it seems like it’s taking a while. Show yourself some grace and know that God is patient. Progress in growth is what’s important. Grow the relationship with God daily to get clean and stay clean.