Filling Our Emptiness
Sep 22 2023 - Eric Buresh
How so we do this? This is a question we’ve all asked and probably spent a good portion of our lives thinking about. It’s a nagging feeling we know far too well if we’re honest with ourselves. Discontent, unimportance, meaninglessness, boredom, disenchantment, isolation, frustration, despair – there must be more to life than this. There must be more to this experience of life, but I just can’t seem to find it. Sometimes I think I’ve found my own secret sauce, but that feeling only lasts for a short time and then I’m back where I started, or even more empty than where I started. What’s wrong with me? How do I fill this emptiness inside of me?
Hear the cry of the flesh: I will fill my own emptiness. I will find the way that satisfies me. It’s a life-long journey. I will keep searching and struggling and trying and trying and trying and trying. I will try unto utter exhaustion and desperation because I must succeed. I will try even unto destruction as I venture further and take more risks in pursuit of filling my emptiness. Can someone please point me in the right direction. Isn’t there some bestselling author who has found the answer? How do I fill this emptiness inside of me?
Oh, dear friend, you never will. You can’t fill your emptiness. It’s entirely impossible. No human has ever accomplished it. All your trying will get you nowhere. Your efforts will either leave you more and more in despair, or you will become cynical, cold, and lifeless to numb all feelings.
Hear the cry of the Spirit: stop trying! Admit you can’t fill your emptiness. The poor in spirit shall be filled by the Spirit. Matthew 5:3. “Walk in the Spirit.” Galatians 5:16. Be “led by the Spirit.” 5:18. This is not the type of leading where you must work hard to follow. This leading is more like a locomotive leading a train. The Spirit provides the power. Just stay connected to Him.
Abide in the One who can fill your emptiness. Abide in the True Vine. John 15:4-5. Depend only on Him for the soul-satisfying living water that flows to those who abide. He will redeem your emptiness with fullness of joy. He will produce in you the very sweetest of soul-satisfying fruit. Galatians 5:22. One of our church planting residents gave me a beautiful metaphor this week of a peach tree. The peaches that grow closest to the roots of the tree are juicy and sweet. As the branches get further from the roots, the peaches will be increasingly small, dry, and sour. Abide closely. Depend. Receive.
“For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another.” Gal. 5:17. The flesh or the Spirit. Which are you going to depend on to fill your emptiness? I choose the Spirit. But, even as I type these words, I hear the warning cry of pride from somewhere deep within: “No, don’t say you can’t do it . . . just keep trying . . . you can do it.” Well, pride, I can’t do it. I can’t satisfy myself. I can’t create love, or joy, or peace. So, just shut up so I can listen to the One who can. I depend on Him. Pride, you will be gone soon, and I look forward to that moment with immeasurable glee.