For Christmas, one of the gifts I was given was a bowl of my favorite sweets. It was one of my favorite gifts actually. Since then, I’ve been eating them and throwing the wrappers back into the bowl.

With the wrappers (trash) in the bowl, it made it seem like I had slightly more left in the bowl than I actually did.

This made me think of what we fill our bowls with in life. Our bowl would be our spiritual life and mind.

When we have the trash, be it the misguided biblical principles taken out of context that leads us astray or the prosperity gospel that preaches something contrary to the Word itself, it can build up the faith we have but it’s not real. It’s not full faith. It’s just placeholders for something we lack.

I thought about how it made me feel to think that I had just a little more candy left in the bowl than I actually had. I took away the trash, the wrappers of what I thought I had, and what did I have? I had less.

It’s quite easy for me to just go to the store and buy more candy to fill up the bowl. When it comes to faith, it can’t be bought and it doesn’t come to us as easily. It’s something that has to be built up over time and acquired through spending time with Him, enduring struggles and putting complete faith in Him through it all.

I hope that your bowl of faith – your spiritual and mental bowl – is full of goods, and not full of the wrappers of what it could be.

…trust not in human wisdom but in the power of God.

1 Corinthians 2:5

For you know when your faith is tested, your endurance has a chance to grow.

If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and he will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking. But when you ask him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind. Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do.

James 1:3, 5-8