Charles Spurgeon wrote, “You will never know the fullness of Christ until you know the emptiness of everything else but Christ.”
We ask God to fill us but are we willing to empty ourselves so that He has something to fill? We cannot be full of Christ and full of worldly pleasures.
When our stomach is empty, we hunger for nourishment. When our spirit is empty of self, then we can hunger for Him. And when we hunger for Him, He “…will not allow the righteous to hunger…” He will fill us.
To know His fullness, our eyes must be fixed solely on Him, our ears must be attuned to hear only His voice, our hands must be empty to receive from Him, and our hearts must be set squarely on nothing but Him. We must lay everything else down.
Until we realize that earthly pleasures will ultimately and regularly bring disappointment, that they can disappear as quickly as a puff of smoke, we cannot see the need for the fullness of Christ nor do we have room for Him to fill us. So God will allow disappointments.
Those disappointments of life are God’s way of emptying us so that we can be filled with Him alone.
Until we realize that no relationship, no amount of wealth or fame or influence, can fully satisfy, we cannot know the fullness, the complete and total satisfaction, joy, and peace that can only be found in Christ.
Solomon summed up earthly pleasures and pursuits this way, “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”
Jesus said, “I am the true vine….Abide in Me…These things I have spoken so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” (John 15:1-11)
We ask God to fill us but are we willing to empty ourselves so that He has something to fill? We cannot be full of Christ and full of worldly pleasures.
When our stomach is empty, we hunger for nourishment. When our spirit is empty of self, then we can hunger for Him. And when we hunger for Him, He “…will not allow the righteous to hunger…” He will fill us.
To know His fullness, our eyes must be fixed solely on Him, our ears must be attuned to hear only His voice, our hands must be empty to receive from Him, and our hearts must be set squarely on nothing but Him. We must lay everything else down.
Until we realize that earthly pleasures will ultimately and regularly bring disappointment, that they can disappear as quickly as a puff of smoke, we cannot see the need for the fullness of Christ nor do we have room for Him to fill us. So God will allow disappointments.
Those disappointments of life are God’s way of emptying us so that we can be filled with Him alone.
Until we realize that no relationship, no amount of wealth or fame or influence, can fully satisfy, we cannot know the fullness, the complete and total satisfaction, joy, and peace that can only be found in Christ.
Solomon summed up earthly pleasures and pursuits this way, “Vanity of vanities,” says the Preacher, “Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.”
Jesus said, “I am the true vine….Abide in Me…These things I have spoken so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.” (John 15:1-11)
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