Empty?

Do you ever feel empty – like there’s nothing in you anymore? I think that sometimes we all feel that way, especially as we age. 

Today I want to look at that feeling – that feeling of emptiness, in a different way.   I believe that being empty is not always a bad thing.

When we are empty handed, God’s hands fill all our needs.
When we can’t even do the little things, we may find God doing everything.
When we don’t have the strength to move, God will hold us up.

When our hearts and lives feel empty our loving Savior will fill those empty places with His Spirit.

When I think about being empty, of course I think about a cup of coffee.  I love my coffee.   But, if the cup is half full and it’s been sitting around, and we fill it up with hot coffee – all the coffee in that cup becomes lukewarm and loses its flavor.  

But when the cup is empty, and we fill it with fresh hot coffee – it’s wonderful! 

So, Being empty is not always a bad thing.

Maybe we need to empty ourselves – to get rid of the idea that we can handle everything without God’s help. We struggle to solve life’s problems, but resting on God’s goodness and love is really what we need to do.

Much of the time we have the idea that we can do life on our own.  Maybe when we realize that we don’t have the answer to the troubles that haunt us and realize that our storehouse is pretty empty, then we can open our hearts and minds to what God wants us to know.  Then He will fill us.

When you think you’re in control, you become so full of yourself that there is no room for God to come into your heart and fill you.

In the Bible, John 4 tells us about a woman at the well.  Jesus asked her for a drink of water, and she asked him why He, a Jewish man, would ask her, a Samaritan woman, for water.

This is what John writes.

Jesus answered her. “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.”

“Sir,” the woman said, “you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water?  . . . “

Jesus answered, “Everyone who drinks this water (in the well) will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Jesus told us that we never need to be empty.  He will become our spring of water welling up to eternal life.  As we fill our minds with the knowledge of our Savior, as we trust in Him to provide love, and friendship, comfort, direction, strength, and peace, we will feel the warmth of His unfailing care and we will be filled.

Empty is when there is nothing left but God and you discover that He is all you need.

Unless we give control to Him

our zest for life is stilled.

Unless we know our emptiness, we never will be filled.

 

Catch me

Picture an old fashioned carousel.   See the horses spinning in a circle - endlessly.

Hear the music galloping along with a vengeance.  See the mirror in the middle of the carousel reflecting back the chaos of the ride.  A carousel isn't always fun, and this cry came from my heart.

"Catch me God,” I cry.

"Stop this carousel I’m on." 

The days and the seasons, stampeding, go by.

Dark pains and dark pleasures around me, they fly,

 

and I cry,

“Catch me please God – before I die.”

 

“Catch me God,” I cry,

as the black in my heart edges in.

My life and my actions increasingly gray -

the good and the perfect are further away,

 

and I cry

“Catch me please God – before I die.”

 

“Catch me God,” I cry.

The carousel mirror shows truth to me.

It shows me a life full of sin beyond measure -

a self-centered life hurting those I should treasure

 

Oh how I cry,

“Catch me please God – before I die.”

 

And then, the carousel is still.

My world has crashed.

I’ve lost the will

to run,

and running, then to hide,

since the mirror has shown me what’s inside.

When I saw and confessed the guilt 

to my Lord, 

He softened the pain, 

and I heard Him explain

that 

playing the game of catch-if-you-can

is something that He would not do.

I had to stop playing,

reach out,  

take God’s hand.

and follow His heart - then I knew.

 

He was there all the time seeing my plight. 

He answered each time I prayed in the night.

He hurt when I hurt and He said when I cried,

 

“I caught you my child, --

on the day my Son died.”

Dear friend, if you are playing that game - please know that life can get better.  It did for me, many years ago when I surrendered my heart to my Father, the God of the universe.

They need your help

 

Dear ones, You may find this poem a little difficult, but there are times when we do feel like the tiny birds who just cry out to God for strength and help - knowing all the while that God cares about each trouble that we face.

When the tiny birds aren’t ready,  fierce winds dry out the sky, and forests burn with angry fire

Who will help the babes to fly?

When peace and safety leave them, and they find no place to lie,

When your children aren’t ready

Who will help the babes to fly?

When the worries circle round them, and ever multiply,

When the way becomes uncertain.

Who will help them asking why?

They cry out!

“Oh God who made us, help us! 

Creator, please come nigh!

You see our plight. You see our turmoil!

You hear us when we cry.

You see us when we struggle, just barely getting by.

You know our heart’s condition.

You hear us asking, why?”

I pray, Dear Father. Help them.

Let your heavenly power surround them.

With wide strong wings lift them high.

Above the winds and trials and troubles,

where thoughts become a web of worries,

God in heaven hear their cry.

God, Oh, Father, help your children, 

when you hear their frightened cry.

Because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings.  Psalm 63:7 (NIV)