Do you feel lonely, overwhelmed, anxious, fearful… perhaps even empty? Of course, we all go through situations and circumstances that cause us to feel out of control, without purpose, or just plain alone. Perhaps you feel as if something is missing from your life. Those feelings are normal and natural, so you need to forgive yourself when negative responses surface. These are times when we need God the most… to lean on, to get support from, or to even vent to. But most of all, you need God because there is a part of YOU God made just for HIM and nothing (NO THING) can fill that void. Your relationship with Him, while being connected to His power, enables you to live without anxiety, fear, or loneliness. When you fill that void with God, you will use those negative situations, circumstances, and trials to grow your faith and… even turn those trials into VICTORIES!
If you are still trying to visualize this void, help is on the way! While working to devise an amazingly clever analogy for the concept of this void, I ended up landing on the “square peg in a round hole” concept. Yes, so “clever” … yet so simple. We can all understand and visualize attempting to put a square object into a round hole. There are even games for kids designed to fit 3-dimensional shapes into their matching spaces. When using this analogy, it is easier to understand that our Creator designed us with a space that only He can fill. So, visualize a hole within us shaped in God’s beyond-unique image… a void that only He can fit into. A void that can only be filled by God, with God’s HOPE.
God desires an intimate relationship with us and… I can’t think of anything more intimate than having a space inside us reserved just for Him to fill with His HOPE. Yes, He wants us to come to Him with all our worries, struggles, fears, emptiness… all the negative stuff that tears at our soul. God wants us to cry out to Him, to lean on Him, to allow Him to hold us in the palm of His hands… to rest in Him. It is when we gaze on God that we can glance at our problems. In other words, we focus all our energy on God while He works out all the details behind the scenes… engineering all the moving pieces together like only He can.
Of course, we can try filling this void with worldly things like new clothes or shoes, a car or second home, even drugs or alcohol. We can try filling this void with social media, new friends, or even pornography. However, this void that is molded in the shape of God’s image can’t be filled with things of this world. It can only be filled with His HOPE, His love, His wisdom, His peace, and His joy. While worldly things may temporarily distract us from the emptiness we feel, only God and His eternal HOPE can thoroughly and eternally fill this void. As a matter of fact, anything that gets in the way of our relationship with God is an idol. YIKES! While Jesus came so that we may have life and have it to abundance, we must keep the worldly things in check so they will not become bigger than God in our lives. Worldly things will never fill the void God designed specifically for Him to fill. Everything of this world falls short in filling a void that only the supernatural being who created us can fill.
When we feel this void filled with God’s HOPE, we are then able to share this HOPE with others. People need to see God at work here on earth. We need to be God’s light and HOPE for the entire world to see and touch and experience. Let others see God in you, glorifying Him in all you do… regardless of how “meaningless”, messy, or muddled the task. Turn their void that appears HOPEless into a HOPEful void with God as your guide. Bless their heart with the same love that God has showered and filled you with. Once they know Jesus, their eternal void will be filled as His Spirit indwells within them; offering them the one and only HOPE that is beyond all HOPE. Their void will be filled with God’s HOPE, enabling them to have an abundance of HOPE that they will share with others.
HOPE that overflows is HOPE that fills every worldly void that has ever and will ever exist. This HOPE has an eternal power that can’t be exhausted, extinguished, or even made extinct. Be filled and fill others with the HOPE only God can fill.
I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in Him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:13 (NLT)
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