For as long as I can remember I was so deeply consumed by things of this world. I sought money, fame, acceptance, and popularity. Little did I know I was searching in all the wrong places. I believed I was identified by my possessions, my reputation, and how many followers I had on social media. I was chasing acceptance from anyone and would do just about anything to get it. I wanted acceptance from my parents, so they would be proud of me. I yearned for the acceptance of men because I thought it defined me and I desired so badly to be loved. I sought fame by participating in any sport that would put me higher than the rest. I chased affection, attention, and affirmation from anyone that would give it. My clothes had to be name brand, my vehicle had to be better than my friends, and the places I hung out had to be cooler than my peers. On the outside I had money, popularity, athletic ability, and the appearance that I had it all together. On the inside I was broken, worthless, drained and EMPTY.
Everything I was seeking in this world left me feeling dried up and alone. Yet I still kept seeking. Seeking to fill a void. To feel worthy. Accepted. Loved. Yet I was hollow. I filled my time with parties, clubbing, carousing, and unhealthy relationships. I knew I wanted more, but I didn’t know how to get it.
About 3 years ago. I got a wakeup call. I knew even though it seemed like I had everything together, I was really falling apart. I was going to work one day and saw a bumper sticker at a red light that read:
“If you died today, would you go to Heaven or Hell?” a simple question. One that I thought I always knew the answer to. “Of course!” I believed in God, I prayed before supper, and I went to youth on Wednesdays and Church occasionally on Sundays if my schedule permitted. God loved me, so why wouldn’t I go to heaven?
There was that empty feeling again. I started to question my salvation. The way I had been living. My future. I remember that day like it was yesterday. I knew I had to make some changes. But I didn’t know where to start. I sat at work weeping to my coworkers seeking any kind of direction I could get. I was in a relationship that was not glorifying to God. I spent my money and my time on the wrong things and in the wrong places. I thought I had everything. But in actuality I had nothing. How could I have so many things in my life that seemed so great, yet still feel so Empty?
Some time went by and God continually worked on my heart. Tugging and pulling me in different directions. I let go of the one person in my life I cared most about. I changed my group of friends and the places I hung out at. My wardrobe changed. My language changed. It seemed as though everything around me was changing. And strangely I still felt empty.
You see, I was living my life to consume. It was all about me and what I could get out of it. I was filling my life with things I deemed necessary and purposeful. But I had to choose who I was going to serve: ME? Or Jesus? Up until this point Jesus was just a man who hung on a cross, one whom I had heard about growing up. I knew he loved me. I knew he was Gods son. But there was so much more about him I did not know.
Through this life changing transition I realized, God is not concerned with your possessions or social status. He cares for the content of your character. He wants you to know your worth. Your identity in HIM. He desires a relationship with you and is pursing you daily. He is the lover of your soul and the beat of your heart.
Prior to Jesus I was living reckless, and free. After Jesus came into my life I started living recklessly for him, and in freedom that only comes from him. I knew following him would mean giving up some things. But I found myself giving up things that I really didn’t care about. I was picking and choosing when and where I wanted him in my life. However; Jesus is ALL or NONE. BLACK or WHITE. HOT or COLD. He does not want visitation rights to certain parts of your life, he wants full habitation rights. He wants to be fully in you, consuming you, and filling you so you can pour out into others. But this cannot be accomplished until you’re EMPTY. We need to empty ourselves fully, so he can be the only thing that fills us. It is when we are completely emptied that we can be completely filled and have positive overflow into others.
What lies on the throne of your heart?
He WILL dethrone anything that is taking his place.
If you thirst for things of this world that is what you will be filled with. If you thirst for him THAT is what you will be filled with.
John 4:14 “Whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”
When Jesus compared life with him to a never-ending, thirst-quenching spring, the image resonated with a hardworking Samaritan woman. Water got her attention, for she was thirsty. Though she had come to the well to draw water, Jesus knew she needed more than physical water; she needed HIM. She had tried to find satisfaction drinking from the wells of the world, but nothing had truly ever quenched her thirst. THEN she met Jesus who knew everything she ever did. This man became a wellspring of life-giving truth that overflowed from her into her community.
(You can read more about the woman and the well in John 4)
So my question to you is “what are you REALLY thirsty for?”
Do you long to know the meaning of your life? Are you longing for the kind of love that fills you up rather than drains you? Would you describe your relationship with Jesus as a life-giving stream or a parched desert? Are you forever trying to find acceptance and respect from your peers? Or are those longings so deep and buried that you can’t even say what you want or need? Perhaps you can’t even get beyond feeling… EMPTY.
ONLY Jesus can identify those deep longings and fill your thirsty soul. Seek the one who offers you living water. Come to him. He won’t be surprised at how empty you are. He knows everything about you. He’s the wellspring who will fill you to overflowing with his goodness and love. But he can’t accomplish this until you empty yourself of you and desire to be filled with him.
John 3:30 “he must become greater and I must become less”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bW5unzXXC0k
The well by: Casting Crowns
I have what you need, but you keep on searching, I’ve done all the work, but you keep on working, when you’re running on empty, and you can’t find the remedy, just come to the well.
You can spend your whole life, chasing what’s missing, but the empty inside, it just aint gonna listen. When nothing can satisfy and the world leaves you high and dry, Just come to the Well.
And all who thirst will thirst no more, and all who search will find what their souls long for, the world will try, but it can never fill, so leave it all behind and come to the well.
So bring me your heart. No matter how broken. Just come as you are when your last prayer is spoken, just rest in my arms a while, you’ll feel the change my child, when you come to well.
