Being Full Instead of '-ful'

[HKHaugan]

Being Full Instead of -ful

 We have a lot of words that end in ‘ful’ like mindful, fruitful, powerful and so on.  But for us as believers, three stand out for me: careful, prayerful and dareful (my word I added because of what the first two led me to share).

 Careful, prayerful and dareful; three words that spur us on to being a witness.  They come alive when we look at them as spiritual words under the influence of Jesus’ command to love our neighbor as ourselves.  The Holy Spirit is at work in our minds when we see the unseen.  It starts with The Word. 

 The world around us has a way of using words, these same words, but in a different way.  The world’s way is fear.  We know that.  It’s all about being and doing right without God so that we feel good about ourselves and get other’s acceptance.  That’s the world with its fear.  So, if we start with the word ‘careful’ from a world perspective, it means you look around you in fear, trepidation, anxiety.  Careful about appearance, careful not to offend others, careful about what they might think, careful to make a good impression so they will judge you as a good person.  Careful as you go from one neighborhood to another.  It’s more about physical and social survival. 

 But if you see the word spiritually, the emphasis is on its first syllable, care.  Spiritually it means to be full of love, full of caring, like Jesus taught as you go from one person and place to another.  We care about who we are going to meet because He’s full of care.  We care about what they think and feel, learn who they are and how we can be a help to them.  I think you get the point.  Scripture is loaded with the way to care.  It teaches us we are a people full of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit; a Spirit-filled people.  We have Spiritude replacing attitudes.  Attitude is a world developed mechanism to handle fear.  The fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5 is a starting list.  The gifts of the Spirit in Romans 12, ICor.12 and Eph.4 are specific ongoing tasks given us to care for others.  Here’s where the Spirit filling operates fully, full of care, full of God’s way to love.

 But if you want to be full of care it takes prayer.  It’s more than being prayerful.  You have to be full of prayer.  Paul tells us “Pray without ceasing. Give thanks in every circumstance, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus (1Thess.5:17-18).”  Start the day with prayer.  Preface every meeting with prayer. Anticipate the plans for the day with prayer.  It’s surrounding every event with prayer.  Then were equipped for all the unknown stuff that the world teaches us to approach with fear.  That’s the big difference.  We pray.  Without God there is only fear.  The world runs by the expectations of others and our assumptions about what others think.  God’s directions are clear.  He is with us all the way, so do not quench the Spirit (vs.19) with the spirit of fear.  Just think of Jesus praying in the Garden (John 17) before He was arrested and sentenced to the Cross. 

 So, I have my own word to follow up being full of care and full of prayer.  It’s dareful.  Go from full of care to full of prayer to full of dare.  Dare to be faithful, full of faith to step out, filling full what it means to be a witness.  The really beautiful part, full of beauty, in all of this is when you dare to step out you learn what faith is all about, that you’re the one with clout as you stand stout and in your heart shout ‘Jesus is Lord, hallelujah.’   Try it and see what happens.  Dare to be full of faith as you move about.  Be conscious, focused, aware of, full of Jesus in your heart.  It’s the Holy Spirit who does the filling for every conscious moment.