I have two or three plants in my living room that really look very sad. They are alive, but just barely, thanks to my stellar gardening skills. They need to be moved out and discarded, but the truth of the matter is that I don’t know what I would put in their place. So, I simply leave them where they are, gasping for life and begging for someone better than I to care for them. To discard them would create an empty space and empty spaces are hard to deal with. Sometimes empty spaces occur as a result of neglect or sometimes as a result of a thorough spring cleaning, either in our homes or in our hearts. Bare, empty spaces beg for something to fill them.
Our lives are much the same. We don’t deal well with empty spaces in our lives. A teenage girl gets dumped and in a couple of days she is out looking for a new guy to date because she doesn’t like being alone. A husband is left by his wife of many years because a new man came along. In just a few months that husband has remarried because he just can’t stand that empty house. We go to church, sit on a pew alone and feel like the whole world is looking at us because of the empty spaces around us. A man is laid off from his job after serving for many years in the same position and he fills the empty days with alcohol or drugs. Sometimes people fill their empty spaces with promiscuous sex, food, television or gambling. Empty spaces beg for something to fill them.
In Luke 11: 24-26, Jesus spoke of empty spaces and the danger of not filling them with the correct things. He said, “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first.”
In this passage Jesus is warning us about what can happen if we don’t fill our empty spaces with the things of God. Empty spaces will be filled with something and we must make certain that “something” is Jesus Christ. If an empty space is left bare, all kinds of nasty things can attempt to fill it, but if we fill the empty spaces in our hearts and lives with things that honor and glorify Christ, those nasty things have no place to settle into. Ephesians 5: 19b tells us to “be filled with the Spirit.” Paul reminds us in Ephesians 4: 22 through 24 to “put off your old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.”
It is only when we proactively choose the things of Christ to fill our empty spaces that we will find victory, joy and peace. How do we do this? We begin in the Word of God with daily Bible study. Then we add to that prayer. Talking to the One who knows everything about us and still loves us is key to finding out what God wants us to put in our empty spaces. Other things that help us fill our empty spaces with Christ’s furnishings are listening to Christian music, attending church, becoming part of a small group Bible study, developing trusted Christian friends, memorizing scripture and staying away from those things that tempt us to allow the empty spaces to be filled with things that are not of Christ. Jesus wants to own and fill every area of our lives. There is no part of my life or your life that He is not interested in being part of, however, He will not force Himself into those empty spaces. You and I must invite Him to settle in and abide in our hearts and lives.
If you are trying to fill your empty spaces with anything other than Jesus, you are not going to find true peace and joy. I encourage you today to examine your life and your heart. Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you any empty spaces that you are allowing to be filled with things that are not pleasing to Christ. Once the Holy Spirit reveals those places to you, immediately give them to Christ, clean out the things that do not honor Christ and ask Him to fill those empty spaces with His things. Then start doing your part to fill them by reading His Word and talking to Him each day. I promise that you will find peace, joy and contentment as Christ fills up the empty spaces in your life.
