In The Empty Spaces
When I see an empty space in my cabinet or on my counter, even my bookshelf, it drives me a bit insane. Not in a way that makes me go bonkers but in a way that I have to fill that place. It bothers me when I see that it is off.
If one side of the bookshelf is totally empty while the other side has only four books, wouldn’t you agree something needed to be in the empty spot?
And because you find that empty space, you go around the house trying to find some sort of cute decor to fill that spot. Nothing seems to work or match. Now you find yourself heading to target, Marshalls, or even TJMaxx to try and find those certain pieces to fill the empty spaces.
As you begin searching throughout the store you find yourself wandering off forgetting why you went in the first place, only to leave with a basket of things you don’t need.
Maybe this is you. Maybe it isn’t you. Either way, we all have come to a place where we find ourselves empty. Empty places in our soul that we tend to fill up with the temporary things rather than the eternal things.
Now hear me out friend, don’t leave. This isn’t a post to condemn because sister, I have been there recently and I just never knew, nor realized, something was missing inside.
I think so often we find ourselves in this pain, the empty space of unsureness, or the empty space of trying to find who we are. We then catch ourselves indulging in a bowl of ice cream, shopping like there’s no tomorrow, eating beyond our limits, or laying around in this deep deep despair.
Can I share something with you? I struggled with sitting in my pain. Sitting in my hurts. Sitting in the rejection and betrayal and the moments of trying to find who I am all in the midst of it. It wasn’t until God began His work in me that my life began to unfold.
We catch ourselves shopping more than what we make only to cause debt to arise. We catch ourselves indulging in the very food we know we are not to eat, yet here we are stuffing our mouths. We binge watch these shows when deep inside we feel to get off the tv, yet we stay there. We find ourselves sweeping our home only to see it not being swept correctly. We never move the big bulky furniture because it’s too much of a hassle. Can dust even get under a big bulky furniture piece anyway? You bet it can!
We find these ways to temporarily feed our empty spaces, only to find ourselves more in a deeper place than before.
What if I were to tell you those empty spaces in our souls isn’t a bad thing?
What if I were to tell you to not stuff other things in those places because there is something that helps us become more full?
What if I were to tell you that it hurts to stuff more and more worldly things than stuffing our hearts with the Word of God?
And what if… what if I were to tell you that nothing, nothing here, will fill our empty spaces the way that God only can?
In the empty spaces, we must be willing to come to the Word, in which is alive and active, Hebrews 4:12. Each time we come to His Word, it revives our soul. It fills our soul to the brim. It makes our cups overflow in a way that we can’t contain. It is in those empty spaces, God fills himself in us. That is when we experience the fullness of God. We experience his presence and we begin to see the Word come alive and active in our life everyday.
Sister, what is God sharing with you right now? What seems to have you run towards the thing to get you filled, rather than run to God and have him fill you?
Father I thank you for my sweet friend who is reading this right now, the one who may need you in this very moment to fill her cup up. In her empty spaces, the empty parts of her soul, I pray that your presence will be mighty in her right this moment and it fill those parts up with you. May she know she is fully loved by you, fully known and seen by you. We need you everyday in our lives. When at times she feels the need to run to this thing, give her the supernatural strength to walk away from it and when she opens your Word it will come alive and active in her life. Your Word will jump out of the pages and into her heart. I thank you Lord for never giving up on us, but continually showing and working in us. We love you Father, so much. In Jesus name, Amen.
