“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness” (Colossians 2:6,7).

There aren’t too many positive examples in life that utilize the word overflow. The sink . . . the coffee urn . . . the cooking pot . . . or (ahem) the toilet. Most of the time it means the very thing we wanted contained is now where it shouldn’t be. It’s a mess. It has to be cleaned up. It has to be put back where it came from.

But sometimes what we want to contain isn’t just the physical. Have you ever overflowed with anger or frustration? Have you ever lost it and poured out gossip or even hate? As we live lives in Christ, Paul is calling for us to overflow with something else. When we’re strengthened in faith. When we understand what God has done for us in Jesus. When we understand the cross or the fact that he drank the overflowing cup of God’s wrath. When we grasp Jesus’ substitutionary death for a world overflowing with brokenness, God is calling for our hearts to overflow—not with anger or jealousy—but instead with thanks. “Continue to live your lives in him . . . overflowing with thankfulness.”