In eastern philosophy and in martial arts movies, an often heard phrase is that one must “empty their cup” referring to keeping an open and uncluttered mind. One of Bruce Lee’s more famous quotes is saying that “The usefulness of a cup is in its emptiness.”

Now in many cases these sayings are both true and good advice to adhere to; however, when pertaining to matters of the spirit, the Bible takes a slightly different viewpoint, one which I was just personally reminded of this morning as I awoke, and that is what I want to share with you today.

Let’s look at Colossians 3:10-17:

“And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.” 

So we can see from the verses above that the important aspect here is not the emptiness of our cup, but what we fill it with. It is vitally important to keep our lives entirely pure for Christ regardless of our circumstances or our status; in everything we do we should do it for Christ — meaning to rest our minds on Him throughout.

If something is not in line with what the Lord wants us to do, we should avoid it. If something tries to fill our mind with impure thoughts, we should put a stop to them before they would cause us to sin (in the noun sense of the word). Anything that causes us to doubt the integrity of the finished work of Christ has no place in our mind or thoughts.

This is how we stay connected to our Vine, the Lord Jesus throughout our days, not by emptying our cup, but by filling it with Christ, so that there is no room for the enemy to take any hold.

Today, let us fill our minds with Christ, and include Him in our day and all that we undertake, and let Him truly be the Lord of our lives.