You Can Be Full of It!

November 16, 2025

Every day, I get a verse of the day sent to my email. Today's verse is “Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice” Philippians 4:4 NLT. As I have pondered on this verse today, something dawned on me. Every human being walking this earth is full of something. When I use the term full (and I think Paul uses it this way, too), I am not talking about our stomachs being full of something. We will come back to that thought in a minute. When I say humans are all full of something, I am referring to our hearts, minds, and spirits. We can either be full of the flesh or full of the spirit. Let’s narrow our focus a bit. Nonbelievers are all full of the flesh. That is their default position. Every human is born this way. However, when we are born again and become Christ followers, God gives us His Holy Spirit. Believers have a choice. We can choose to be filled with the Spirit, or we can choose to be filled with the flesh. Walking in the Spirit is a choice we make. Why do some Christians fill their lives with joy, happiness, mercy, and always seem to be helping others, while others seem to be stuck at the starting gate and never seem to really take off in their walk with the Lord? The answer is that those Christians who consistently bear good fruit in the kingdom are those Christians who choose to be filled with the Spirit. How do we do that? Do we just say God, let me be filled with the Spirit, and presto chango, we are suddenly Spirit-filled Christians? It isn’t quite that simple. We should pray that God would fill us with His Spirit (God gives every Christian His Spirit when we are born again. We just need to be filled). But when we pray for the Spirit’s filling, we have a part to play as well. Remember when I said earlier that when I use the word “fill” in this little discussion? I’m not talking about our stomachs, but rather our minds and hearts. I am eating lunch while I type this. It just so happens I had a coupon for a free pizza, so as I type, I am filling my stomach with pepperoni, sausage, cheese, zesty tomato sauce, all on top of a delicious carb-filled crust. The pizza is satisfying, and my stomach is full. The question is, full of what? Food that ultimately isn’t very good for me, that’s what. Eating pizza for lunch isn’t a good plan for maintaining a healthy body. The point I’m trying to make is that I had a choice to eat pizza or something healthier, and I chose the pizza. What are you feeding your heart, mind, and spirit? Things of the flesh, which feel good, taste good, and are fun, or things of the Spirit, which will draw us closer to God. So, let's look at our verse again. “Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice.”  What are you filled with? Joy, peace, and gentleness….or anger, jealousy, and envy? If your heart isn’t where it needs to be, look at what you are feeding it. Let’s choose what we eat wisely.

Be blessed and then, go be a blessing . . . Bro. Andy