Our grandson Joseph got attached to a certain sippy cup, and I do mean attached!  As he cut more and more teeth, he would chew on the spout part of the cup.  In a matter of time, he had pulled chunks of the covering off the spout.  The cup looked scary, and the spout, with its jagged edges, was rough.  I don’t know how he could drink without it being very painful.  It was in Joseph’s best interest to stop drinking from that cup.

Joseph’s parents bought new cups to replace the old.  Joseph refused to drink out of any other cup.  He would look at the new cup and know it was not “his” cup.  I won’t even begin to describe the ordeal of getting Joseph to drink from the new cup.  He balked at it!  He slapped at it!  He whined about it!  He got angry about it!  He walked in misery!  All because he would not drink from the new cup.

Finally, Joseph’s parents filled a new cup, and they held him firmly, and let some of the milk go into his mouth.  Instantly, Joseph tasted wonderful, refreshing milk flowing from the new cup.  Joseph no longer drinks from the chipped cup, but now receives daily nourishment from the new cup.

Joseph had to learn that sometimes our cup gets chipped, and we must not let the chipped cup become what controls our drink.  The old cup must give way to the new cup, in order to grow, be fed and be refreshed.

Life has a way of chipping the cup from which we drink.  Too often we get stuck wanting to drink out of the chipped cup:

• The cup of unforgiveness
• The cup of faithlessness
• The cup of prayerlessness
• The cup of apathy
• The cup of the good old days
• The cup of disappointment
• The cup of unresolved pain

God offers a new cup!

He is making a way for you even where there seems to be no way.  God wants to do a new thing in all of us –a fresh thing.  Too often, we don’t believe God is at work.  All we can see are the former things – the chipped cup.

God has a plan for your chipped life.  He has already set in motion the things necessary to fulfill the plan He has written for your life.

Pick up that new cup and start drinking!  Like Joseph, you will find a refreshing drink.

 “But forget all that— it is nothing compared to what I am going to do.   For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it?  I will make a pathway through the wilderness.  I will create rivers in the dry wasteland.”  – Isaiah 43:18-19