Always have a big bucket…..
Jim Burns
My great grandson is ready for the Easter egg hunt on his first Easter morning. Phoenix is prepared with a BIG BUCKET so he will have enough room to put all the eggs he finds during the egg hunt. He has a Big Bucket faith as he starts his egg hunt.
That reminds me how important it is for we Christians to always have a big bucket faith, so we have enough room for the big blessings God wants to bestow on us.
The God of the universe, Father of us all, redeemed by the blood of His own dear Son, Jesus, and sanctifies us by His amazing grace through the Holy Spirit who lives in us, has big blessing to bestow upon us, if we only have a bucket big enough to receive them.
The word bless, blessed or blessing means God’s bestowal of divine favor; to bestow good of any kind upon mankind; to bestow worthiness to the unworthy; supreme favor for the unfavorable; to the fortunate who are unfortunate; blissfully happy to those who are sadly unhappy; contentment to those who are in contention; blessed with a healthy body to those who are sickly, great talents who seem to be talentless; protection from evil, to those who are under the spell of evil. God is our source of protection when the evil one comes against us and tries to tare us down and destroy us.
The act of blessing may be considered when God blesses mankind. God’s blessings is accompanied with that virtue which renders his blessing effectual, and which is expressed by it. Since God is eternal and omnipresent, his omniscience and omnipotence cause his blessing to avail in respect to all things, and in the life to come.
The scriptures tell us that God is a blessing God. In Psalm 2:12 says “Blessed are all who take refuge in him.” In Psalm 84:5 says, “Blessed are those whose strength is in you.” Psalm 112:1 says, “Blessed is the man who fears (revers) the Lord.” There are multitudes of other blessings God wants to bestow upon us.
In the beatitudes in the New Testament, Jesus gives us several blessings, if we have our buckets big enough to receive them. In Matthew 5:3 through 11, Jesus tells us about those blessings.
Blessed are the poor in spirit; blessed are those who mourn; blessed are the meek; blessed are those who are hunger and thirst for righteousness; blessed are the merciful; blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God; blessed are persecuted because of righteousness; blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven.
God has so many blessings He wants to give us, if we only have a big enough faith bucket to receive them. Check out your Concordance on the words bless, blessings, blessed and see how much we could be receiving from God’s unlimited blessings, if we could only prepare ourselves for those blessings, like how ole Phoenix prepared himself for his first egg hunt. That bucket is almost as big as he is. God’s blessings are only limited by our faith bucket.
Faith is defined in several ways. Faith is complete trust and confidence, belief and trust in and loyal to God; a firm belief in something for which there is no proof; confidence or trust in another; faith in another’s ability; belief that is not based on proof; a hypothesis that would be substantiated by fact. A big bucket faith is believing in God to trust Him to bless us in ways we could never even imagine. A big bucket faith is in a relationship to a person, -Father, Son, and Holy spirit – not to a doctrine or teachings of religion, but a firm faith in the great I Am.
How do we get big bucket faith?
Paul tells us that “faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). This “word” is ultimately from God, “inspired” (literally “breathed out”) by God through the work of the Holy Spirit. Carefully read Jesus’ promise to his apostles that they would be led into “all truth.” Jesus gives to his disciple’s encouragement that “all truth” will be given them when the Holy Spirit is come upon them. (John 16:5-16). In verse 13, Jesus says, “But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth.”
Jesus also reminds them that when the Holy Spirit comes, “He will bring glory to me by taking what is mine and making it known to you. All that belongs to the father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you. What a wonderful promise! That’s why we need to have a big faith bucket.
All the things Jesus did, we can do by a big bucket faith. Jesus says to his disciples, “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father” (John 14:12).
Jesus makes an awesome promise for those who serve Him after His resurrection. He continues to act but He does it through His followers. His apostles will do greater things than He did (previous verse) but they will need prayer to accomplish those goals. He says, “And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (John 14:13-14).
During Jesus’ final prayer to his disciples, he prayed for their protection from the evil one; to keep them as one, as the Father and Son are one. Jesus prayed for our unity of faith. He prayed that we stand as a united force against the evils of this world. Unity is always given in the Father and the Son, the meaning of the prayer is that “they continually be one” rather than what could and would happen, the church’s present divisions, which would result in the failure of the Christian movement. Jesus knew what would happen when men’s ego gets into the mix and diversification happens.
Anytime division, denominational struggles, and church fights happen, the work of God will suffer. Only in unity in a Big bucket faith can the true influence of God work and glorification can happen. We need to trust in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit with a big bucket faith to see God’s will continue to prevail over evil. We have so much potential for being glory to God and the Son when we trust God completely, without wavering, without a mixture of man-made religion. We should be preaching the Word, healing the sick, casting out demons, and praising and glorifying the God of heaven and earth, His Son Jesus through the Holy Spirit who is in us doing the things Jesus did while he was here on earth.
In the final book of the Bible, The Revelation, the final chapter (chapter 22) says, “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city (the New Jerusalem) wherein dwells the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb of God where God’s glory is the light, where there is no night and everything is perfect there; were all the saints of the ages dwell there (including all our loved ones and friends) who have washed their robes in the blood of the Lamb. Oh, what a blessing. Trust Jesus and follow His leading for those unlimited blessings. Always have a big bucket faith!
Ole Pheonix, had a big bucket faith that he was going to find a bunch of eggs. Faith results from action. To realize a big bucket faith, we have to act upon our faith. We have to pick up our big bucket and go out to the egg hunt and search for eggs. We can have the biggest bucket around, but we only sit and look at our bucket, nothing happens. Only when we pick up the bucket and get in the hunt.
Just a final word on the idea of a big bucket faith. Many years ago, when I was just a very young child, we had a dreadfully dry summer, the grass and garden vegetables were scorched, many of our wells were running low of water.
The pastor at our church called for a prayer meeting to pray for rain, others were invited to meet on a certain day for the prayer meeting.
One old man (Uncle Bob, we called him) lived about five miles from the church. Uncle Bob had no transportation, so he was walking to the church. A neighbor stopped and offered him a ride, at which Uncle Bob, kindly said, “Well, I appreciate the lift, but since I walked this far I’ll just walk on to the church.” The neighbor noticed Uncle Bob was carrying a slicker under his arm, and asked “Bob why are you carrying that slicker, we haven’t had rain in months, to which Uncle Bob replied, “Well, I thought we were going to pray for rain, so I brought my slicker.” Now, that is big bucket faith. Uncle Bob had faith that it would rain before he got home so he carried his slicker with him. Now that’s true faith!
Always have a “big bucket faith” if you’re hunting eggs or have a” slicker under your arm faith” if you’re praying for rain. God blesses us according to our faith!
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