"Cast all your anxiety on Him because He cares for you." (1 Peter 5:7 NIV)
Yesterday I did a lot of housekeeping. I’ve been working on a major writing deadline (stay tuned for an exciting announcement!) and our home was bearing the evidence of it. It was a nice afternoon of scrubbing, vacuuming and mopping. I listened to a few podcasts (check out Typology with Ian Morgan Cron) and a Maverick City album. One song in particular grated at my heart. Check out the lyrics:
“You love when I’m empty
when I don’t have enough
when I don’t have anything else to let on
when I don’t know the answers
when I don’t have the solutions
’cause you do miracles with empty things”
Initially, the words rubbed me all wrong. “You love when I’m empty” feels like gaslighting in the very worst way. But then I remembered the widow with her jars in 2 Kings 4. God fills our emptiness with His goodness. We are mistaken when we attempt to file charges against our eternal, holy and good God with our modern worldview.
It is critical to ask: what is God emptying us of? I can’t speak for you, but I can consider my own track record. Pain. Misconceptions. Apprehension. Sinful thoughts and habits and hangups. Prejudice. Fear and anxiety. Stubborness. Complain. Selfishness. Pride. Vanity. Ulterior motives. Falsity. Comparison. Foolishness. Argumentativeness.
And what does He in turn fill us with? Scripture makes this clear. More of Himself. His power and presence. Pure motives and a divine agenda. The Holy Spirit and His fruit as described in Galatians 5:22, love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness and self control.
The invitation to empty is not manipulating or depreciating because we were created to contain the presence of God. Sin spilled it out and filled us back up with something so much less than original intent. When we realize this and choose to self-empty, we create room to hold even more of God. We are far better off after emptying that we are when we’re full of ourselves.
"May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that You overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." (Romans 15:13 NIV)
Lord, help us in this process of self-emptying. Let us see it as a necessary task in taking on more of You. Today we understand that we were created to carry You into this world. We cannot contain You when we are full of self and sin. Pour us out and fill us up anew. Amen.
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