We are all very busy people.  We find it difficult to stop.  When things have stopped they create a void.  We have various activities that fill our days.  If we have open time we often find an activity to fill the void.  We all have voids in our lives.  Voids are often noted by silence.  There is nothing going on so it is quiet and activity has stopped.  When it is quiet, we often will turn on a radio or have a TV going in the background.  We may be moving around the house where we can’t see the TV screen or get the full impact of what is on the TV but we like it running to let the noise fill the void.

We are often so eager to have the void filled we are less particular as to what is filling the void.  Much like the void we feel in our stomach when we are hungry.  We can know what is healthy but the void causes us to make poor choices as we grab unhealthy food to fill the void quicker.  Our source of entertainment can follow this also, we watch TV that is not beneficial but it fills the void.

We don’t like voids they make us feel needy.  We can feel needy for companionship, food, possessions or simply peace.  We don’t like feeling needy, when we feel needy we feel we are not adequate.  Being not adequate makes us open to making mistakes.  We don’t like being not adequate.  We are always working at filling the voids.

Having a void makes us feel dependent.  We don’t like feeling dependent.  When we are dependent we need to rely on others to fill the need.  If we are dependent and want the need filled, we must trust someone other than ourselves.  But others have let us down.  We don’t like trusting because we have been hurt.  When we know we made a mistake, trusting others, we may feel we can only trust ourselves.  But we can’t do that successfully because we are not adequate.

The good news is we are all not adequate and we all make mistakes.  We need to embrace the fact that we are not adequate.

Matthew 6: 25-34 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?  Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.  Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.  If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith?  So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’  For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

We struggle to fill our void.  We are assured in the Scriptures that God will meet our needs.  We can trust God.  But God does not give us everything we ask for, when he has the power to do so.  How does that work?  We see in our imagination how things should be, what we want and what we think we need.  God sees reality and also the domino effect.  God knows what makes you tick, He’s the one who put the heart in you. God is the only one who can guide you to be truly content in life.

Psalm 46:10 “Be still, and know that I am God!   I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth.”

We do not need to fill the voids we can embrace the voids as a time we can listen for God’s voice.  We are to seek God, we are not to hope God will be louder than the noise we are entertaining in our lives.   We can learn to stop in our life and give God the quiet moments.

Written and posted by Joyce E Poggensee.

Verses referenced Matthew 6: 25-34, Psalm 46:10