Empty. Barren. Desolate. Nothing. We fear nothingness. We rebel at the thought of being in a place that is utterly devoid of the things we have been used to. When all we have are empty wallets, drained resources, unfilled cisterns of our dreams and ambition, we cringed at the thought of having nothing, of being nothing. We do not like that at all. The thought of being barren intimidates us. Nothingness oppresses us, weighs us down, and engulfs us. How have we reached this place of total bankruptcy? How we do we climb out from the rock bottom of the pit we ourselves have dug inch by inch by our nails?
There is a peculiar attraction, like powerful magnets to the thought of God’s delight in nothingness. How He must have eyed with great interest at the things that are seemingly empty. Imagine His delight as He leads His people in the desolate, empty places of the wilderness. Imagine the gleam in His eyes as He created, out of nothing, the marvelous and the beautiful, awe-inspiring majesty of the world. There’s just something about nothing that moves God’s hand. Emptiness does not intimidate God. Nothingness, in the eyes of God, becomes the opportunity to draw up something significant, something powerful, something true.
Understand this about being empty: having nothing can be one of Lord’s best gifts to us. Because when we feel empty, when we feel something is lacking in us, when we’ve reached rock bottom, and there is just no way we scrape anything valuable at all - we are open for the source that will fill us. It is because of this feeling of emptiness that we first came and discovered Jesus. This nothingness brought us to Jesus Christ. That’s when we first learn how God can use nothing. An emptiness that sets the heart to aching and wondering and searching.
We do not look forward to these spell of bareness and misery in our lives. Something in us rebels at the thought of reeling in empty nets, empty hands, empty lives. And yet if we are to grasp a bit of God’s mystery, it is to realize that it is in being nothing, in having nothing that God is able to conjure the best of His provision and creation. In our nothingness, we realize we need Him. We must have His presence. It is not in the moments when we are in desert places of desolation that we are in danger. It is when we don’t sense that need, when we think we can coast by without Him for a day or two, when we say that our cup is already full—that is when we are in danger.
There is a peculiar attraction, like powerful magnets to the thought of God’s delight in nothingness. How He must have eyed with great interest at the things that are seemingly empty. Imagine His delight as He leads His people in the desolate, empty places of the wilderness. Imagine the gleam in His eyes as He created, out of nothing, the marvelous and the beautiful, awe-inspiring majesty of the world. There’s just something about nothing that moves God’s hand. Emptiness does not intimidate God. Nothingness, in the eyes of God, becomes the opportunity to draw up something significant, something powerful, something true.
Understand this about being empty: having nothing can be one of Lord’s best gifts to us. Because when we feel empty, when we feel something is lacking in us, when we’ve reached rock bottom, and there is just no way we scrape anything valuable at all - we are open for the source that will fill us. It is because of this feeling of emptiness that we first came and discovered Jesus. This nothingness brought us to Jesus Christ. That’s when we first learn how God can use nothing. An emptiness that sets the heart to aching and wondering and searching.
We do not look forward to these spell of bareness and misery in our lives. Something in us rebels at the thought of reeling in empty nets, empty hands, empty lives. And yet if we are to grasp a bit of God’s mystery, it is to realize that it is in being nothing, in having nothing that God is able to conjure the best of His provision and creation. In our nothingness, we realize we need Him. We must have His presence. It is not in the moments when we are in desert places of desolation that we are in danger. It is when we don’t sense that need, when we think we can coast by without Him for a day or two, when we say that our cup is already full—that is when we are in danger.
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