Tuesday, December 1, 2015
Revelation 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me.
FILLING THE EMPTY SPACE
There's something about an empty space that demands to be filled. The bare corner in the living room screams, "Don't leave me like this! Find something, anything, to put in this lonely, vacant space!"
What about the human soul? It too desperately cries to be filled. But whatever it is people cram into their souls just doesn't do it. Something is still missing.
When humankind disobeyed God back in Eden, they also kicked God out of their hearts -- the only one Who can truly fill us up. The solution to the dilemma would seem simple. People just need to go back to God. But that is something they refuse to do, and in fact cannot do by themselves. Sin has so overtaken the human soul that people have zero interest in looking to God to fill what they think they can fill themselves. Worse yet, if a person dies without God, he is faced with a never ending emptiness in hell.
God must come to us, and He does. Jesus comes knocking at the door of empty hearts everywhere. He comes to fill them up through the message of forgiveness. By Spirit and Word He comes to pour into sinners new life. Life with Him. Life with Him now. Life with Him forever. You and I had no innate power to let Him inside, but His Voice, His Word, is strong and inviting. He has entered in and made His home inside us, filling every corner with His gifts of peace, love, hope and joy.
Advent is a time to marvel again how a little baby was born to die and taste the hell we deserved in order to make room for God in our hearts. It's a time to thank our Triune God for filling our empty space in the way that truly fills.
O God, crush our foolish pride when we think we can fill the emptiness of our lives by our own efforts and tricks. Forgive our sin and fill us with Jesus. Amen.
