As a child I was always told to not chew with my mouth open. My parents used to tell me that no one wanted to see all of the food in my mouth, and that it was bad manners and impolite to eat that way. As I got older I learned that there were other things I probably shouldn’t do with my mouth wide open as well. For starters, I learned not to ride the family 4-wheeler through the woods at dusk with my mouth open. I learned this lesson when a rather large June bug met its end by slamming into the back of my throat while I was going roughly 60 miles an hour. I also learned that it was not a good idea to dive head first into a swimming pool off of the diving board with your mouth wide open. It is very hard to keep yourself from inhaling water with your mouth open. And my favorite, which is not a lesson I learned personally, but one I read about on the internet—a young dad commented on how it was not a good idea to change the diaper of your baby boy with your mouth wide open!  I’ll let your imagination figure out how he learned that lesson.  My point is that physically speaking it is not good to live life with your mouth wide open. But spiritually speaking, as children of God, I believe we should each be living life with our mouth wide open. Let me tell you why.
In Psalm 81, we read a psalm that was written by Asaph, who was kind of like the Israelites’ worship Pastor. He wrote this psalm to be sung on the beginning day of the feast of Tabernacles, which was one of Israel’s annual festivals, and the purpose of this festival was to remember the mighty hand of God in providing shelter and protection for the Israelites as they wandered through the wilderness. Each Israelite lived in “booths” (somewhat like a tent) for the entire week as a reminder of God’s protection of their forefathers who dwelled in makeshift booths for 40-plus years in the wilderness. I believe this Psalm was used on the first day of the festival to help the Israelites rejoice in the power of their God (vs. 1-4), as well as call them to reflect on their God (vs. 5-16).  Asaph urges the Israelites to reflect on 4 things; what God has done (vs. 5-7), what God demands (vs. 8,9), what God desires (vs. 11-13), and what God will do (vs. 10, 14-16).  What God had done was deliver them from the slavery and oppression of Egypt, what God demanded was single hearted devotion to Him, what God desired was for them to listen to Him and walk in His ways, and finally what God would do was to bless them! 
In verse 10, He tells the Israelites to “Open your mouths wide, and I will fill it.” God wanted to bless the Israelites with the finest of the wheat, and satisfying honey from the rock (vs. 16), but they first had to open their mouths wide.  Many of the Israelites failed to receive the satisfying blessings of God because they were unwilling to open their mouths. 
My friends, it is the same with us today. God desires to bless His people, if only we would open our mouths wide and let Him fill it, but for some reason we too are unwilling to open our mouths wide. We may be scared that God might fill it with something we don’t want to have to deal with. Like, maybe in order to bless us He has to take us through a little rough patch for a while to bring us to the place of blessing. We may be scared that if we open our mouth wide God might have to dump a bunch of medicine in to cure us from the disease of our sin before He can then fill us with His other blessings. I am not sure what all of our reasons are, but I know that all too often I live my life with my mouth closed shut instead of wide open, and as a result I miss out on the blessing of God. Friend, I want to challenge you today, to turn your eyes heavenward, and open your mouth wide, and allow God to fill you up. He knows what is best for you, and He knows exactly what you need. Oh, and one more thing, when He fills up your mouth, don’t spit it out if it tastes bad; after all some of the worst tasting things are what is best for us! Live your life the way God wants you too, with your mouth wide open!