Skip to main content

Keep Your Lamp Filled


 “Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept” (Matthew 25:1–5).

Everyone had the same mindset to go to the same place for the same reason. Everyone was on their way, but partial action was taken by five of the virgins. The bridegroom had the capacity to care for all ten.

Everyone had a lamp, but everyone did not have oil to see Who they were waiting for. The oil was available, but five virgins did not take the initiative to get more oil. What they had was not enough for the journey they were on.

Five of the virgins were wise; they did what was needed to obtain more oil. The other five virgins were foolish, thinking that what they had was enough and that getting more would not be required or necessary. That assumption made them foolish and caused them to be out of position.

The bridegroom did not come right away, and everybody slept. The five wise virgins were resting. The five foolish virgins were lazy, if you ask me.

The difference was not in their rest, but in their readiness.

When the bridegroom arrived, the five foolish virgins had no light; the oil provided the light. They knew who the bridegroom was, but the oil needed to go further was lacking. They wanted to borrow from what the wise virgins had, and they said no.

There are some people you will need to say no to in wisdom. Those people cannot drain your oil when they had the same opportunity to get their own. They want to leech off of what you prepared for and were rewarded for having. They want to benefit from your anointing, your obedience, and your time spent with God when all of y’all were in the same place, for the same reason, and with the same opportunity to be received by the bridegroom.

There are moments when saying no is necessary, not out of selfishness, but out of obedience.

The five foolish virgins tried to rush and fix their mistake, but the door was closed when they returned. God is a God of timing and seasons. When He tells you to move and prepare, do it. Protect the oil that He has given you. Giving it away will drain you and cause you to be out of alignment and perhaps lazy because you gave what you should not have.

The foolish virgins wanted access to the bridegroom, but He told them that He did not know them. This is true. They were out of alignment and did not form the relationship they had the opportunity to form. They thought what they had was enough, but God wanted them to have more.

Consider what God is saying today. He wants you to have more, but you cannot be lazy in getting that more. Get in His face. Talk to Him. Seek Him. Ask Him questions in faith, believing He will answer.

God is calling us higher, but we cannot be lazy in pursuing what He offers.

Lord, give me the mindset of the five wise virgins. I pray against laziness and procrastination. Give me the passion of Christ as I move forward in doing what You have asked me to do. Help me understand that it is not in my doing, but in my surrender. Help me to surrender all to You. Help me not to store oil that should be used. Fill my lamp with more of You so that my light will continue to burn for Your glory. Help me to be ready and pleasing in Your eyes. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Recommended Reading: Matthew 25:1–13

 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Waiting for the Promise vs. Moving in Impatience

“Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed, and said in his heart, “Shall a child be born to a man who is one hundred years old? And shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child? ” And Abraham said to God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before You!” Then God said: “No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him”   ( Genesis 17: 17-19 NKJV). Isaac was desired, but Ismael was birthed out of impatience. If God told you that you were going to birth something beautiful, no matter what your season may look like, bank on the Lord’s promises. Your Ishmael does not have to be a man, your Ishmael can be an opportunity. Don’t walk into just any ole thing because you got tired of waiting on God. If God promised you something in 2016 and you didn’t see it in 2017, that does not mean that He forgot about what He promised you. Isaac had a set season and ...
Post a Comment
Read more

You are Not Lost in the Crowd. God Sees You!

Someone asked the question Why do we sing? When we lift our hands to Jesus What do we really mean ~Kirk Franklin “Why we sing?” It’s very very easy to get lost in the realm of religion or to get caught up in the hype of “church”. God has blessed so many of his people with gifts and talents that range from writing and composing, to worshiping, preaching and dancing. At my church, it seems like every one has some sort of gift and I must admit that I feel lost in the shuffle, but that brings me to point of asking myself questions such as ,“who am I going to church for?” and “whose attention am I aiming for?” Everyone wants to be noticed. We want to be praised and we want to be the favorite child, but at what cost? What are we paying to be number one in the congregation’s eyes? and do we even care if God is pleased with us right where we are? I’m the queen of being offended and I often compare myself, my progression in Christ, and my life to others. This should not be so and...
Post a Comment
Read more

Shrinking Is Not an Option

Today I realized that I was afraid of success. I’m afraid of being all that God has called me to be because I am afraid of the accountability that it will intel and I feel undeserving of all that He has for me. I feel like 2019 is a time to grow forward and to excel. It’s like we are knocking on the door of the promises of God after spending so long in a wilderness. The thing about being in a wilderness is that that place is meant to make you a warrior, not a weak-minded victim. You are supposed to learn how   to fight   and encourage yourself in the wilderness, but some of us have become content with the dryness of the land instead. Today, I wanted to shrink because so much seems possible for me right now. Things that I have been working for are right in face, but a part of me wants to just shrink because I am comfortable. I became comfortable with fighting and with the thoughts of giving of up. I became friends with being disappointed, but now God is wanting to call fo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Take Up Your Cross

  God paved the way for my present and my future with the prayers that He placed into my heart many years ago. I didn’t know what new challenges I would have to overcome or what would be required of me as I uttered the sentiments of my heart into His ears. All I knew was that I wanted to serve Him.   One my many heart’s desires was to not be a seat filler. I didn’t want to grow content with occupying a seat in the church and never getting out of it to go into all the world to do what God had ordained for me to do in the earth.    At that time I didn’t know who God had called me to be and I didn’t understand that some of my prayers was an indication of it.   Spoken from a transparent place, as life happened, the more God told me to get up the more I wanted to sit down. Tiredness and fear had gripped me on more occasions than I want to admit and I have had the audacity to whisper, “ get somebody else to do it”, on more than one occasion. I felt justified in what I...
Post a Comment
Read more

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

I think that we have all seen the movie Snow White , right? I’m not going to go into a summary of the whole movie, but there are a few parts that I would like to draw attention to. In the movie, the queen loved to look into this magic mirror and ask it “mirror, mirror on the wall who is the fairest one of them all?” and she was all good as long as the mirror said that it was her. She put this action into practice on multiple occasions, but a time came when the mirror told her that there was one fairer than her. The queen was not happy about this and wanted to take snow white out because she was more beautiful than her. Snow White was also a lot more accepting and nicer than the queen. My question for you today is, what does you spiritual mirror look like? When you look into that spiritual mirror, what do you see? What do you expect to see? and what would you do if the Holy Ghost told you that you were not the fairest, cleanest, most forgiving, most loving one anymore? It feels good ...
Post a Comment
Read more

When Destiny is Calling Your Name

When destiny is calling your name, it could cost you your purpose if you do not respond. Purpose can sometimes pull you away from all that you are familiar with as it was in the case of both Abraham and Moses. Both of these men had to leave their familiar surroundings so that they could be made and developed into the leaders that God had called them to be. Sometimes your call will seem crazy to those that don’t know God. Stop placing such high esteem on the opinions of what other people have to say about you and walk in the things that God has told you to do. In God, you will accomplish more following Him then you ever will falling into line with the state of mind that people have assigned to you. Don’t look at your job, where you are in life right now, or the negative words that people have spoken over your life. Make up in your mind that you will look at the big master piece painting of GOD instead of the small perishing polaroid of man! ~ You fall when you lose focus. St...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dad

Mom is one of the greatest gifts that God could have given to us. She’s passionate about us and she fiercely wraps us up in loving protection. She is our cheerleader and the one that understands. In the eyes of a child, mom has all the answers and she is the smartest lady in the world. No one can take the place of mom….. But what about dad? Dad is our strong and mighty tower. Noon is stronger than him and his love holds us together. Mom is important, but there is nothing like the love of a father. Isn’t it funny how we compare “being there” to the presence of a father? If you talk to most people about why they feel a certain away, they will start talking about the absence or presence of their father. We even compare the love of God to our dads. This can be a good or a bad things depending on the type of man that the dad in our lives is or was. The key word is the last sentence was man . Today I got the opportunity to talk to myself. No, not literally, but me in the form a young gi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Nothing will be wasted and Nothing is in Vain

    "And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28 ).       Consider the word of the Lord to be precious. When God speaks, it is with the intention to destroy yokes not spew meaningless words into the atmosphere. Within the words of God there is power to over throw the enemy's hold on your life. You may wonder what all this means to you . W ell, I'll tell you. Y ou have to receive that the words and power of God can be activated and effective in your life. People can pray for you until they are blue in face, but where is your faith? Do you believe that God can do what he says he is going to do even if you don't see the manifestation of a thing immediately .     "Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding" (Proverbs 3:5 NIV ).     The first thing that you have to underst and is that God is...
Post a Comment
Read more

Need Prayer?

“But I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail”   (Luke 22:32a). For a time, I didn’t ask people for prayer . I became protective of ‘my stuff,’ and I backed away from needing people because I had me-the army of one. I felt alone, misunderstood; all the things that I wanted no one to know about because  I got me . This mindset created offense and functional depression. I backed away so that no one would see it; no one knew me enough to recognize what it looked like.  “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat” (Luke 22:32b).   What does it look like when you are being sifted? The sifting starts early in life and can be a continuous pattern if the devil feels like his tactics are working against you. I asked a friend recently, “Why am I so emotional? Did God give me these emotions?” I tend to feel deeply because I am an intercessor, but the emotions have to be stewarded properly. You have to master them by submit...
3 comments
Read more

WAIT ON THE LORD!

“We heard him say, 'I will destroy this temple made with human hands and in three days will build another, not made with hands” (Mark 14:58). I hate the process of being built. It hurts. A LOT! Life and people beat on you and you can feel your self falling apart, but then you hear the sound of the contractors and the bricks being laid on top of one another to make you so much stronger than you were before. The beautiful thing about being built is that you have already been torn down. Many of the toxins have been washed away. Some of the pride is gone and God is the one directing and constructing the whole process. I said that I hate the process of being built, but I never said that you won’t find beauty in it. God will send people by your construction site to compliment the progress that HE is making. Ya see, you have to know that it is HIS progress. I have to stand on the fact that “he who began a good work in me will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus”...
Post a Comment
Read more