Filling the Empty
You invest in your relationships with others to see if the hole will be filled. You work harder at your profession to see if the emptiness will subside. You spend hours in front of the television to drown out the ache within. You fill your life with busyness, not simply because you like being busy, but because you don't want to slow down and feel the hollowness inside.
In the Bible, there was a man chosen by God to judge Israel and deliver them from their enemies the Philistines. But this man had issues. He had an emptiness within as well, and he chose to fill the void with his own pleasures. Instead of giving his life completely over to God to be used of Him as he was called to do, he went on a self-satisfying crusade that ironically, never satisfied. Sampson was his name, and his story is found in Judges 13-16.
Sampson was a vain and temporal man. He loved women and eventually came to ruin because of his uncontrolled desires. Relationship after sinful relationship led him deeper into a life void of God and His plans for Sampson's life.
So what was the point of God choosing Sampson to judge His nation? What can we learn about emptiness from this divinely inspired story? Here are two takeaways I found as I studied this passage:
Number one: Don't be like Sampson!
He lived to please himself and was chained to fulfilling every desire and passion he had. In chapter 14 of Judges, he sees a Philistine woman and goes to his parents demanding they give her to him as a wife.
He saw. He wanted. He demanded.
Are there areas of your life where you see something and just have to have it? I know I fall prey to the get-it-now mentality and know that it's easy to try and fill myself with the convenient. I get stuck in the fast-food fast-satisfying mindset. But as Sampson discovered (and I am learning!), the fast approach doesn't completely satisfy and fill our longings and desires. It teases us with the thought that we will be satisfied, but leaves us empty and searching to fill that which cannot be filled with the temporary.
One thing Sampson didn't learn was that filling every empty place with what he thought would satisfy doesn't work. And let's face it, there are a lot of empty places in our lives! We seek acceptance, love, purpose, attention, happiness, and satisfaction - to name just a few. What we don't always realize is that these empty places can only be filled to the fullest when we are filling them with God's fullness. No matter how hard we try to fill ourselves with work, relationships, and even food, we are only pushing out His fullness instead of filling the void. In essence, when we are filling the empty places with temporary things we are making a deeper hole in our hearts that only begs for more fast-satisfaction.
When I am feeling the gauge of my fullness running towards empty, I know the only way for me to fill up is to go to Christ. At these times, I need to spend quiet moments with Him in His Word and in prayer. I know that we all live busy lives and don't always have time to spend hours studying and praying, so when we are sensing emptiness in the midst of a hectic life we need to pause and pray. It doesn't have to be a long prayer, it can be as simple as "Lord, I feel myself grasping at things to fill me and I know those things aren't You. Please fill me with Yourself in all the gaps of my life and help me to rest complete in you."
That prayer may need to be said a few times throughout the day. Maybe our lack of fullness in specific areas of our lives in is an indication that we need to carve out some quiet time in our schedules and sit at our Master's feet. I know this is a fact for me!
Number two: We all have choices!
God chose Sampson to judge Israel, and Sampson could have chosen to serve God with all of his life, but instead he chose to live for the now.
Every day we are faced with similar decisions. Our choices determine who we are living to serve: God or ourselves. Notice that God allows Sampson to follow through with the choices he made. He didn't stop him from "visiting" the harlot (16:1) or spending time with Delilah. These women were sinful choices he made and neither choice ended well for him. As a result of his decisions, he was surrounded by the enemy as they sought to kill him, and in the end he lost his God-given strength and was taken captive to be tortured and abused (16:20-21).
We have the same freedom to choose what path we will take and who we will please, but we must remember that there are consequences for the decisions we make. Will the temporary satisfaction be worth the cost? Even if you don't end up in a prison with your eyes gouged out like Sampson did (gross, I know!), you will face things that are unpleasant and unfulfilling.
Let's go to God when we experience empty feelings and allow Him to fill us to the brim with His perfect fullness! Trust that He can and that He will completely complete you, even when it feels like you may never be whole again. Some of our empty places come from holes left long ago that need to be restored. He can mend any broken heart and heal any wound if we come with faith that He will restore us. Because restoring hearts and filling souls is His job as our Father, and our job is to rest and trust in Him.
"And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace." (John 1:16)
"For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:" (Colossians 2:9-10)
~Tiffany~
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