LET HIM FILL THAT VOID!!

I'm writing for Five Minute Friday, and this week's prompt word is VOID.   

I was arrested by these lines in my quiet time on Sunday morning 

Who may ascend into the hill of the Lord?

Or who may stand in His holy place?

He who has clean hands and a pure heart,

Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol.................  Psalm 24:3,4

I wanted to keep reading but He asked me to stop there.

Whenever I hear or read these lines, I always default to 'do I have clean hands and a pure heart?'.   I usually beat myself up about not having those, because I know myself.

But that wasn't His focus that morning. 

His focus was on my soul and what I easily lift it to, and what I have lifted it to.

In our modern culture, we don't recognise idols so much.  It's easy to see the idols in the Old Testament, and think how foolish God's people were who lifted up their souls to those things.

But what are we lifting our souls to?  

Nothing in all of creation can fill the void in our souls like He can.    Nothing and no one, regardless of how good it is.   It's His goodness we need in the void in our souls.   

Some of us have lifted our souls (mind, will, emotions, and our hearts) to addictive substances like drugs, alcohol, tobacco and food - yes, food can be an addictive substance.  

Some of us have lifted our souls to busyness, work, achievement, education - some of it for Him.  

Some of us have lifted our souls to relationships, people, people-pleasing - sometimes in the name of love.

Some of us have lifted our souls to fear and what-ifs and worst-case scenarios and needing to be in control.

Some of those things are socially acceptable and even applauded, even in Christian circles.  Some are frowned upon.    And some of those things are not evil in themselves.  Idols often aren't but become idols when they replace Him, and taint our souls.    We need pure hearts, hearts free from worshipping anything other than Him.   

The answer to this ongoing struggle is just a few lines further on.  

He shall receive blessing from the Lord,

And righteousness from the God of his salvation.

This is Jacob, the generation of those who seek Him,

Who seek Your face. Selah   Ps 24:5,6

It's HIM that we need to fill the void in our lives.   It's Him - who He is, in all His goodness and holiness and splendour.   It's the depth and width and length and breadth of the knowledge (a deep knowing) of His love for us.  That's what fills that void, and continues to fill it.  And it's not a one-off thing, but a continual seeking of it.   And that's why it requires us to be people that seek His FACE, not His hands, and to keep seeking His face, even when we get the blessings.   We've been learning about how the Israelites were constantly in this cycle of 'help, God, help!' and then when they got rescued, and restored and blessed, they went back to ignoring Him.   May we not settle for the stuff.   

My girls have asked me many times over the years why we can't see God.   And my answer is fairly simple and maybe not deep enough.   "If we could see Him, meaning if He was a physical being, there would be no room for anything else, including us, because He would fill every void, every space, every inch of the universe.”  

He can and longs to fill every void in us, but He's left the choice up to us.   

So, will we let Him fill the void in us?   Or will we settle for far less, because the lesser things are normal and acceptable and encouraged, even in Christendom?  

It is our individual choice to seek His face and let Him fill the void as He longs to do .  

“Ho! Everyone who thirsts,

Come to the waters;

And you who have no money,

Come, buy and eat.

Yes, come, buy wine and milk

Without money and without price.

Why do you spend money for what is not bread,

And your wages for what does not satisfy?

Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,

And let your soul delight itself in abundance.

Incline your ear, and come to Me.

Hear, and your soul shall live..............   Isaiah 55:1-3

Come to the waters

you who are thirsty 

come and be filled

come and find life

why spend on what won’t satisfy? 

come to the waters

come to the waters

come to the waters