Fight the Emptiness
Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.
Matthew 19:21-22 (NKJV)
It’s amazing to me how much space emptiness can fill in our lives.
But life in Jesus Christ is not about living an empty existence. Your relationship with Jesus is defined by fullness and peace and joy and inner alignment and blessing and elevation and success and exposure. The Lord doesn’t fill your life with such blessings and enjoyment for you to then walk around feeling empty.
Jesus wants you to be healthy and whole and happy. He’s able to keep you connected and to make you successful. He’s able to entrust you with prosperity. He’s able to bless your temporal life. Jesus wants you to be holy. He wants you to propel. He wants you to excel. Jesus doesn’t want you to live an empty life.
The blessing of walking with the Lord is that He will encourage you, He will challenge you, and if necessary, He will push you to address the emptiness that occupies way too much space in your life.
For the rich young ruler, it was clear that he was too closely attached to his riches. They defined who he was in his own estimation. But if you were to stand in the place where the rich young ruler stood, what would the Lord bring front and center about your life?
I want to get you fired up about putting up a resistance against accepting a life of emptiness. I want you to want more than that. Don’t just accept the relentless grip of emptiness without at least putting up a fight. Don’t let emptiness have any time or attention in your life.
Fight it, defy it, resist it. Strike back against it. Stand up to it.
Hand It Over
Cast all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.
1 Peter 5:7 (NKJV)
The things that appear to be problems in your hands are actually opportunities in God’s hands.
The best thing that we can do is to stop trying to shape and manipulate those things in our own hands, and instead put them into the hands of the Lord.
How long are you going to keep trying to shape something in your life that you know can be worked out by the Lord if you only surrender it?
Every night we go to bed shaping our anger, our resentment, our malice, our disappointment, our low self-esteem, hoping we can fall asleep in peace yet unsuccessful in doing so.
We should instead turn these things over to Him and say, “Lord, I can’t do anything about these things swirling around my life. I’m trying, but I can’t fix it. I’m tired of holding this thing in my hand. Let me give it to You.”
Each of us holds onto things much longer than we should. What are you holding onto right now that you should be giving over to Jesus? The first thing that comes to your mind is probably a priority in your life that should not be. Whatever that is, envision yourself handing it over to Jesus like a child to a parent. In fact, Jesus said that if you want to be a part of the Kingdom, you have to become like a little child.
So with the imagination of a child, take that thing that has you so stressed and hand it over to Jesus. Success, failure, mistake, temptation, trial, burden, doubt, fear, resentment, resistance, disease, pain, sickness…whatever it is, no matter what the problem, when He gets it in His hands, He can solve it. Just turn it over to Him.
Curiosity Feeds Your Faith
And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”
Luke 24:32 (NKJV)
Unbeknownst to them, Cleopas and another disciple have been walking with Jesus. When they reach town and turn toward home, Jesus moves like He intends to continue His journey. They extend the hospitable invitation for Him to join them for dinner and to rest His head in their home for the night.
It is their insistence that sets them up to see Jesus for who He really is. And that insistence is born out of not letting the excitement of the day rob them of the curiosity of the evening.
They had walked with Jesus for nearly seven miles—almost three hours. And after all that time, they were still interested.
It's been a full day, especially in the immediate aftermath of the Passover celebration and against the backdrop of the drama of the crucifixion of Jesus a few days earlier. And yet, Cleopas and the other disciple remain curious about this Stranger—so much so that Cleopas asks Him to give the blessing before dinner.
When Jesus prayed and handled the bread, then their eyes were opened. Their curiosity was rewarded with blessing.
Don’t let life make you stop wondering what might happen if you turn it over to Him. Stay curious, my friend. There’s always something Jesus is revealing.
Meditation and solitude and giving and mercy and worship are all spiritual disciplines. I suggest to you that curiosity is a spiritual discipline too. Curiosity is food for faith. In fact, when faith wants to eat at a buffet, it goes to the buffet where curiosity is the cook.
Let curiosity feed your faith.
Let Jesus Handle It
The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.
Exodus 14:14 (NIV)
We have a tendency to want to handle things on our own. But part of growing in faith is learning to let Jesus handle things in our lives.
The Bible tells us to not be anxious about anything but to bring everything to Him in prayer and supplication. That’s why we surrender our will to His will and trust Him enough to walk our lives by faith and not by sight.
We often have a reflexive response to the hurts, fears, and disappointments we encounter. We want to strike back. We want to protect ourselves. We want to show strength. We want to cut ties.
But when Jesus handles things in our lives, He brings a different meaning to the situation—a meaning that discloses who He is, which in turn helps us to better understand who we are. The way Jesus handles things is different. It forces us to forgive our enemies. It helps us to wait on the salvation of God. It helps us to not be impulsive and to sit back and wait for God to show His hand.
There are times when we must back up, be still, and know that God is God. When we do, He demonstrates His might and strength, He discloses His character and reveals His will, He opens a door and makes a way.
The hard times may be difficult to endure, but when we allow Jesus to handle things, we emerge from those times and realize how the Lord was synchronizing events and experiences to make us who we need to be.
The Best Way to Pray
The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.
Psalm 145:18 (NIV)
I heard the story of three preachers who were discussing the best position for prayer. They were sitting around trying to compete with each other in theological dialogue about the best posture to be in so that God would hear their prayers. Nearby was a telephone repair man who was working.
One preacher says, “Kneeling is definitely the best posture for prayer.” Another one says, “No, no, no. Kneeling is not the best posture for prayer. I get the best results standing with my hands outstretched to heaven.” The third preacher says, “Y’all are both wrong. The most effective prayer position is lying prostrate, face down on the floor.” The telephone repair man had been listening to them prognosticating theologically—having their competition about what is the best position in prayer—and he chimed in and said, “Hey fellas, the best praying I ever did was when I was hanging upside down from the top of a telephone pole.”
I don't know how spiritual you are when you pray. You might have a little prayer closet or corner in your home. You might have a prayer shawl that you put over your shoulders, special lighting, or meditative music for your prayer times. But life is going to push you into some predicaments where you aren’t going to have a chance to use those wonderful prayer places, positions, or props. When life hangs you upside down until you don't know which way is up, you still can have a little talk with Jesus and tell Him all about your troubles, and He will hear you!
When it comes to prayer, it’s not so much about the how, when, and where. It’s about the what, why, and who.
