Filling Up The Empty Places

Empty.
We have negative connotations connected to that word.
The glass half empty describes a pessimistic view of the world.

The primary definition of empty is…containing nothing; not filled or occupied.

When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does mot find it. Then it says, “I will return to the house I left.” When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.
(Matthew 12:43-45)

We are all filled with something.
Ourselves, fear, greed, lust…the list is endless.
Each of these choices are unsatisfying.
They leave us empty.

When I taught Sunday school years ago, I tried to teach the children what it meant to be sealed with the Holy Spirit.
I used to make a kind of slurping noise.
It was my way of showing them we are “vacuum sealed”.
They would laugh and they would imitate the sound.
It helped them to get the concept.

And you were also included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in Him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession to the praise of His glory. (Ephesians 1:13,14)

That slurping noise was something concrete to convey a very difficult truth to grasp.
When we are sealed with the Holy Spirit, nothing else can get in.
We belong to God.
We have our deposit…with the rest of our eternal inheritance guaranteed.

If we are not included in Christ, we are empty.
There is a void.
We attempt to fill that void ourselves with things that do not last.

I am not a jigsaw puzzle person, though my children enjoyed them.
There is nothing more frustrating than coming to the end of a puzzle and realizing you are missing a piece.
The picture is incomplete.
There is a gaping hole in an otherwise beautiful picture.

We are like that unfinished puzzle.
We are incomplete.
There is a gaping God-sized hole in an otherwise beautiful picture.
We may look good on the outside…but inside…emptiness.

Oh, the pain of looking into empty eyes.
Eyes void of the Spirit.
The world may admire how put together we look…how very finished we appear.

But the world cannot see into the heart.
Only God can.
Only God knows if we are filled…or we are empty.
We cannot hide our true state from Him.

As I looked into the secondary definitions of empty, I found that empty also means having no meaning or likelihood of fulfillment; having no value or purpose.

This is the total opposite of what it means to be in Christ.
We have meaning and value simply because He created us.
We are loved by the Creator of the universe.

…so is My word that goes out from My mouth: it will not return to Me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:11)

We have a purpose…designed by God.
We are no accident.
We are not a mistake.
We matter.
We are valued.

I looked up the definition of the word filled: to become an overwhelming presence in.

When we are sealed with the Holy Spirit, He becomes an overwhelming presence in us.
The God sized hole has been filled.
Vacuum sealed…nothing else can get in.
We are His.
Secure.

Go ahead and slurp.
Remind yourself that you are His.