What has happened to my words?
Am I walking the wrong road?
How can I be sure that this is what God wants me to do?
The week had been one that I didn’t care to repeat. The skies of my personal life were mostly cloudy with a chance of thunderstorms and night after night the darkness blotted out any chance of seeing the stars.
I prayed. I waited. I stressed. I repeated the cycle.
Over and over.
But the skies remained moody, and I received no clarity.
My mind was drained of ideas, my emotions were dull, and physically I was worn out.
I was running on empty.
“Is it even possible to serve God from a place of such emptiness?” I asked myself.
One week stretched into two as I wrestled with the question, and with my life in general.
It bothered me that the emptiness within me didn’t ring true to the nature of the God I love.
Then I stumbled upon some wise words written by my brother-in-law, and at long last, a sliver of revelation broke through my foggy atmosphere.
“My God is a God of fullness,” he said.
“When I begin to grasp the reality of this truth, it changes how I live. I am no longer “getting by” or “just making it.” I can live in and out of His fullness.”
I knew immediately that he was right. It is not God’s will for us to sputter along on empty tanks, barely able to function.
But how do I exchange my emptiness for God’s fullness?
And why am I empty in the first place since I have the Spirit of God in my life?
I struggled some more. And I went digging for any Scriptures I could find that would chase away the cloudy skies above my head.
That’s when I struck gold and the answer to my problem.
“May you experience the love of Christ… Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” Ephesians 3:19 NLT
In the busyness of deadline demands and the stress of the unknown, I hadn’t taken time to just relax and soak up the love of Jesus.
Oh, I had read my Bible. And I had prayed for the needs of my friends and family.
But I didn’t take time to just rest and enjoy His presence.
No wonder I didn’t feel complete. No wonder I lacked life and power and fullness!
My focus was on the wrong thing.
As I mulled over my find, a joyful stirring began deep within and bubbled up until my heart was bursting with fullness. The right focus really does change things!
Sitting with Jesus changes everything!
Turns out I’m not as empty as I thought. After all, my circumstances haven’t changed. The questions are still there, the deadline still looms, and the future is still uncertain but now my spirit is rested, and my heart is full.
I just needed to come back to the fullness that was available to me all along.
What about you, my friend?
Are you dealing with situations that are sapping you of strength and causing you to feel like you are running on empty? Are you sputtering along, hoping the fumes will get you to the next rest area where you can refill your tank?
Maybe you need a change of focus today.
What can you do to give yourself a few minutes of quiet so you can curl up beside Jesus and rest, letting Him love you?
His promise is the same to you as it is to me.
He will make you complete with the fullness of life that comes from Him.
Your cloudy skies don’t have to empty your tank of His abundance.
2 thoughts on “Running On Empty “Abundance Series””
How comes we struggle with the same things? I too felt like i never would get my responsibilities filled till one day God ask me to do the impossible, or so i thought i struggled to know what to do. And when i finally yeilded to his soft pleading it worked out way past my imagination!! Oh the hights and depth of his mercy!! Hope Feb goes well with you
Well my sister, you did it again. You were in my head and prayers. That is where I’ve been, wanting to do the right thing at the right time. Sometimes the right thing at the right time is being still and letting Jesus love us. Thank you for blessing my soul.