Your Emptiness is your OPPORTUNITY for fullness

My brilliant and beautiful friend Amy gave me a prophecy in Fall of 2019 that has changed my life and continues to echo and be fleshed out more and more as I journey with the Lord. It’s one of those life words that you will spend the rest of your life unpacking. Specifically that:

 “Your emptiness is your opportunity for fullness.” 

Lately, the Lord is reminding me of this simple but hard-to-live-out message. He’s using other people’s metaphors and analogies to bring it up again and again and I shouldn’t be surprised because Amy challenged me to remind myself of this word everyday. So, true to His character, Holy Spirit, my Counselor who has an infinitely better memory than me, is doing His homework to remind me. Isn’t He so good? 

So, one analogy my friend used was “Your Barrenness can become your Breakthrough” (shoutout to Sam) and my own new mantra is “I lack Nothing.”  Literally NOTHING. (Psalm 23: 1, James 1:3-4) Jesus promised us a life of exceedingly more than we can ask or imagine (Ephesians 3:20-21) but do we believe Him?

In this Upside Down Kingdom life we’re privileged to partner with God in, we are sons and daughters of the King of Kings who has UNLIMITED resources and we live in ABUNDANCE. Every moment, we can choose how we view our situation. Will we see it through a lens of Poverty or Abundance mindset? It’s our choice. Abundance is always available but will we choose to see it and access it and cry out to God to renew our minds and open our hearts to see the goodness in all of it, Him in it? 

He’s teaching me that whenever I am dissatisfied in any way, He’s nudging me to come to Him with my hurt and pain and broken heart. That my discouragement and frustration and grief at what I am enduring is His gentle whisper to bring it to Him, to allow Him to hold my fragile heart in His strong hands and to cry out to Him and let myself feel all the feelings but then also give them over to Him and ask for His thoughts and His revelation so that I don’t become victim to my own circumstances/ feelings/ desires but let them usher me into even greater depths of closeness with Him and into healing that is always available if I just humble myself and get honest with Him.  

My default pattern when I experience emptiness or longing for something that remains unfulfilled is to numb or stuff the pain. To stay so busy that I’m distracted from my true feelings and to numb with all sorts of things (TV/ food/ going to friends/ social media, etc). And in some situations, this is necessary so that I can persevere and continue on with my life and not get consumed by my feelings. But, if I never address my pain/ conflicting emotions, then I leave a wound in my heart to fester and I delay healing the Lord wants to do in me that will then overflow out into how I love others and will be something I can give away to others because I have walked through it myself with the Lord. 

Recently, I was listening to some romantic songs on the way home from work (the Lord challenged me to make a romance playlist to activate my faith that I will be married one day) and I just got overwhelmed with grief and felt the pain of wanting to be married so badly and still seeing no evidence that I will ever have a husband. I had never allowed myself to actually grieve it to that level because I usually numb it or flick the thought away, “I’m so blessed. How dare I complain about this minor frustration in my life when I have it so good and others are literally starving to death.” etc etc. So, I just start bawling but I kept it together somewhat, because I mean, this is Atlanta we’re talking about, and I was driving on a 6 lane highway at night 🙂

Anyways, so in that whole scenario, it was so cathartic for me because I let myself feel the hurt and sadness but even in the midst of it, I knew and actually believed that God was good TO ME specifically. I really believed it deep down to my core. And, at the end of the drive, I was good. I wasn’t upset at God and I didn’t question His character (although I have many times in the past). I felt like a weight had lifted because I had given my pain to the Lord instead of trying to stuff it and manage it on my own. And, that’s growth for me because that’s never happened before. 

So, my challenge for you is:

In what area of your life do you feel emptiness?  Where do you feel you Lack something? What Promise have you yet to see fulfilled? What stresses you or overwhelms you? 

Sometimes, I think the Lord allows us to have a Holy Discontent. Because it reminds us to go to Him for our healing. To run to Him to be satisfied. To give our burdens and overwhelming emotions to Him. To let Him renew our minds and see things from a perspective of Abundance and not lack. To exchange brokenness for healing. Dissatisfaction for Gratitude as we bask in His great love for us and are revived in His presence. 

So friend, remind yourself daily: Your emptiness is your opportunity for fullness.

And then, don’t stop until you are FULL. 

Full of His Joy, Peace, Love, Hope, Strength, Faith, and Goodness. 

For He is the well that never runs dry and so your cup always runneth over. 

**Shoutout to Amy for inspiring and prompting this post and for being faithful to speak words of life to me when prompted by Holy Spirit. I love you friend.