Have you ever seen the words 常满 inscribed on things?

If we go to some retail stores, on some of the bins for storing rice, these words would be on it. On some piggy banks too. If the piggy bank is full, then the family will be happy and full; the family won’t need to borrow money from others; they won’t need to pander to others; perhaps they can speak louder/raise their voices.

But Christians shouldn’t only seek for their rice vats or piggy banks to be full. We should seek to be filled in our hearts. If we don’t lack money or food but our hearts are empty, how can we find peace?

What should our hearts be filled with so we can have peace and joy?

1. Be filled with the righteousness of God
   Isa 1:23
   Jerusalem was a faithful city initially. It was filled with righteousness and justice. But now it has become a harlot. A harlot may be beautiful on the outside but inside she is filled with sin. Jerusalem on the outside appears to still be the holy city of God. The people there are still holding feasts and worshiping God. Many people pray. But what does God say?
   v13-15
   God hates their sacrifices and that they were keeping all the feasts and sabbaths. Isn’t the people keeping the commandments of God good? Why is it God hates them now? God even says their prayers won’t be heard by Him. Because their hearts are full of sin. On the outside they appear pious and to worship God, but inside they do things that offend God. God doesn’t merely look on the outside, He looks whether you’re truly good on the inside.
   v16-17, 27-28
   God tells them to repent; to cleanse themselves. Because only you know where you have gone wrong. Others can only see your external, they can’t see into your heart. Only you yourself know where your faults and weaknesses lie, so you have to cleanse yourself. When you repent and turn your face toward God, then you’ll truly have peace in your heart and be saved by God in the end. But if you harden your heart and continue to be unrepentant, God said we will surely be destined to destruction. It’s not that God is too strict. God gave them many chances and called them to repent, but they hardened their hearts to the very end.

Therefore we have to heed the words of God. Fill them with God’s righteousness. Only then will we be able to live out righteousness, and receive true joy and peace.

2 Tim 4:7-8
You need to fight the good fight, to finish the race, to keep the faith. Then is laid up for you a crown of RIGHTEOUSNESS. Why a crown righteousness and not a crown of glory or life? Isn’t it our hope that we’ll be glorified and receive eternal life in the end? Isn’t it more accurate to describe this crown as the crown of glory or life? But Paul emphasises the crown is one of righteousness. Why? Because on that day the Lord will judge according to His righteousness. If we don’t live out righteousness, how are we going to face this righteous judge? So we have to ponder within ourselves. Have we fought the good fight? We have fought a fight. But have we fought it righteously? We may have fought many fights but it wasn’t done righteously.

How are we going to escape from sins when judgement comes? We have run the race we ought to run. But did we run it righteously? We have to keep the faith. But did we keep it righteously?

Some Christians don’t like to hear about righteousness and judgement. They cannot accept that God will judge because they believe God is love. How can God eternally punish someone? This goes against God’s love. People who think as such are like kids who have been spoilt. They think parents only love. They think no matter what wrong they do, nothing will happen because their parents love them. So these spoilt children easily continue to do the wrong things because they know their parents love them. One day when their parents punish them they’d regret. They realise other than love, their parents are also righteous.

Understand that God is love. But His love can’t go against His own righteousness. True love loves the truth. True love doesn’t go against the truth. God will punish according to righteousness. When disaster strikes, there’s a great difference between Christians and non-Christians. Non-Christians will try to make sacrifices to APPEASE their gods because they think about their sins and are fearful of their gods’ judgement. But Christians question God, “Why do you allow us to suffer this way?” They blame God for not protecting them. As though God is indebted to them. They think God should protect them as a right. See the difference? When disaster strikes, non-Christians think about their sins and judgement; Christians think about how this can happen when God is supposed to be love. That’s why they question God based on His love. They have forgotten to look at themselves on whether they’ve abided by God’s word. That’s why Paul reminds us to be righteous. Then the righteous judge will definitely give us the crown of righteousness.

1. Be full of the love of God
   Rom 5:5
   The Holy Spirit will pour out His love into our hearts. Don’t we have love in our hearts already? Even the evil people have love in their hearts. Even if they may be terrorists, they don’t display any terror to their family at all. But this is the love of men. The love of men can be selfish. They only love people dear to them or those who can benefit them. But to others they can be emotionless. The love of Man can also be very calculative. It can create all sorts of unhappiness and discontent. Some people say “I love you so much. How come you love me so little?” Whether it’s said between parents and child, or between friends. We’re very calculative of how much we receive and how much we’ve given. When we find that a person calculates and finds he no longer benefits, he chooses not to love.

The love of Man is also an indulgent one. Even though he loves one, he finds it insufficient and loves another.
“I truly love my wife. I also truly love my mistress. There’s nothing wrong with this love. Both loves are equally genuine.”
“I don’t doubt the genuineness of your love. But this love is an immoral one. It’s right to love your wife. But it’s wrong to love another man’s wife. Not only have you destroyed their family, you also destroy your family.”

A pure love comes from God. Immoral love comes from the devil. A pure love can establish a household. An immoral one can destroy it. Some people claim their love is genuine. “Is it wrong to love?” They use this to justify their immorality.

Therefore the Holy Spirit will pour out God’s love in our hearts. Only then will we understand the pureness and trueness of God’s love. The work of the Holy Spirit isn’t just for us to speak in tongues, the work of the Holy Spirit also pours out God’s love in our hearts.

“When does the Holy Spirit pour love in our hearts?”
If you ask such a question it means God has already poured the love in our hearts but we haven’t been observant enough to realise it. Whether singing hymns, praying, listening to sermons, the Holy Spirit will move you to think of God’s love. On one hand, we’d feel indebted to God, on the other hand the Holy Spirit will remind us on whether we have loved others with God’s love. The work of the Holy Spirit is to constantly remind us of these things. But we have put aside the moving of the Holy Spirit. It’s not that the Holy Spirit hasn’t poured out God’s love in our hearts, rather it’s the case where we have quenched His moving.

Luke 6:27-28
But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you.
To the common man, they’d find this very unreasonable. They can’t accept such a love. “My enemy has caused so much harm to me. Why should I love him? It already shows great cultivation on my side that I don’t take revenge. How can I love him?” The Lord Jesus isn’t saying these words to them. He says these words to “you who hear”. They were said to the disciples or those who want to follow Jesus but haven’t decided yet. The Lord tells us that His love is one that loves one’s enemies, because it’s not a human love but God’s love. Man’s love may have many murmuring and much discontentment. God’s love will allow us to be able to accept and accommodate, reducing the amount of discontentment we have. For example, someone says “I will NEVER forgive you”. Of course when you say this it’s as if you’re punishing the other person; you want the other person to regret he has done such a thing. But is this really good for you? You’re merely punishing yourself. Because when you think of what he has done to you, you’ll be angry and regretful of what has happened. Your body is free and not bound but your heart is trapped by these emotions. Not forgiving the person seems like you’re punishing him but actually you’re punishing yourself too.

v37 “…Forgive and you will be forgiven.”
In the chinese translation, to forgive also means to release. When you forgive someone else, you don’t only release the other person, you release yourself too. More importantly, when you release someone else, God will release you too. How will you receive forgiveness for the sins you committed? Think of God. When you receive the love of God to forgive, you’d receive more of the grace of God (as He forgives you).

The Holy Spirit will pour God’s love in our hearts. God doesn’t mean for us to do things very difficult. Loving our enemies seems very difficult. But after we have heard the explanation of Jesus, we’d realise it’s a grace to us. Forgiving others means God will forgive our sins too. Us not forgiving others is a small matter. But God not forgiving us is a great matter.

The Holy Spirit is already doing this work. What we need is a tender heart to submit to the moving of God’s spirit.

1. Always be filled with God’s wisdom
   Exo 35:35
   God instructed Moses to build the tabernacle. The articles in the temple are very intricate. At that time they didn’t have the tools we have today to help them complete the work. How would they do it? God causes them to be full of wisdom, enabling them to overcome challenges in constructing the articles of the temple. We truly need God’s wisdom to overcome difficulties that we face. To receive wisdom, we need to learn from those who have wisdom. More importantly, we have to seek wisdom from God. Just like Solomon. “God you have made me king over Israel. But I don’t know how to go out and come in.” It’s simple to go out and come in. Why does Solomon say this then? What he means is he doesn’t know how to administer over the Kingdom of God. There’re many difficult complex issues and he needs to be able to discern right and wrong. So he asked for wisdom to be able to rule over God’s people; to discern between true and false and make the correct judgment. Solomon’s request wasn’t so that he would be outstanding. It was to be able to wisely rule over God’s kingdom FOR the glory of God. So that he could lead the people to be reverent towards God and fear the Lord. All of us lack wisdom and we need to seek for wisdom. But what do you want wisdom for? Just for our personal glory? If this is so, this isn’t pleasing to God. But if we’re like Solomon, ask wisdom to know how to rule over God’s house; how to manage our own homes; and more importantly to manage ourselves. Some people can’t even manage their selves, what more their own homes and God’s house.

Prov 1:1-3
To know wisdom and instruction,
To perceive the words of understanding,
To receive the instruction of wisdom,
Justice, judgment, and equity;
Solomon wrote Proverbs through the wisdom God gave him. So that those who read this will be able to know the instruction of wisdom. So that when they go about doing things, there’d be justice, judgement and equity. Today people don’t lack knowledge. When you go online you can find much professional knowledge. In the past such knowledge was only accessible by going to the university and spending much money on the fees. But now you can find it online. People today are more learned than people on the past. But people today lack wisdom. They’re first class in doing things but are low class in being a person/做人. In executing things, he’s really a talent. But being a person//做人, there’s much less to be desired. This is a common trend. Proverbs aims to teach us how to be a proper person//做人. How do we use God’s wisdom to overcome the various trials and temptations, to live peaceably with other people of the world? More importantly, how are we going to use God’s wisdom to preserve ourselves as a person of God? While it’s important for us to earn money to survive, this is temporary. It’s more important to be a proper person//做人 than to be capable in doing things.

We ask God’s wisdom to fill our hearts so we know how to live our lives.

1. Always be filled with Christ in our hearts
   If a Christian believes in Christ, does it mean he has Christ in his heart? This should be the case but in reality this is often not the case.

Rev 3:20-21
These are the words the Lord Jesus spoke to His disciples. He should be in the hearts of the believers. They cry out to Him Lord Lord. They kneel before Him and pray to Him. Does this mean Jesus is in their hearts? But Jesus says He’s at the door standing and knocking. There’re many Christians who don’t have Jesus in their hearts. But He loves them. That’s why He’s at their hearts’ doors knocking. We have to reflect on our faith. Our bodies physically kneel. Our mouths utter the words ‘Lord Jesus’. But is the Lord Jesus truly in our hearts? Jesus knocking on the door of our hearts means He isn’t compelling us. Jesus can control our every thought and actions easily. He can do it as a right in fact, because we believe in Him and say He is our Lord. Yet He doesn’t impose anything on us. He wants us to be willing, out of our own accord, to open the door for Him to enter. He’s waiting for us to come to a realisation and open the door for Him to come in. What will be the end when we do this?

v20-21
I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
I will grant to sit with Me on My throne

Today if we haven’t opened our hearts for Jesus to come in and dine with us, then how is it possible for us to dine with Jesus in the future? This is an important question. Have we allowed the Lord Jesus into our hearts to dine with us? If we’re dining alone in our hearts, this means we want to walk alone. In whatever we do, we just do what WE want. But if we allow Jesus to sit and dine with us, we’d think about whether the Lord Jesus approves or is pleased with us doing a certain thing. We’d be vigilant and not dare to disobey Him. Jesus coming into our hearts is to support us to grow spiritually in the right way; to preserve our hearts in the Lord Jesus. Then when Jesus comes again, we’ll be able to dine with Him.

Heed the word of Jesus. Open our hearts and allow Him to enter so that together with us He’ll control our lives, so our lives will ultimately be within the Lord Jesus.