There’s a picture frame in my office on a shelf. I bought it a few months ago, and I am almost embarrassed to say, it’s never been filled. I had a plan when I purchased it. There was an empty space on the shelf that needed to be filled. So I ran to my favorite discount store, found a great frame that matched the office, brought it back and filled the space…
…but that filling created a new space, a new empty space. The frame was empty, and now it needed to be filled.
The Bible begins in Genesis with a chapter full of empty spaces. In fact, we find Genesis 1 stating that the earth was empty, so God started creating spaces in the emptiness…the skies, the seas, the land. God created empty spaces, and then He went to work to fill them. What God created, He filled…birds for the sky, fish for the sea, animals for the land.
When the spaces God created were filled and He declared that they were good, God spoke one more time and He created man. Genesis 1:26 says He created man in His own imageand then He gave man a charge.
God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Genesis 1:28
God created man in His image. God fills. That means we were created to fill.
I find that life is a series of filling empty spaces, just like my shelf. As a wife and a mom, I see an empty space in the refrigerator, and I go to the store to fill it. There is an empty space in my closet, so I shop online for something perfect…to fill it. I remember an empty flower pot out on the porch so I head to the garden center to fill it as well. I see a blank space on my calendar. What do I do? I get to work to fill it.
As those created to fill, we can get pretty busy filling up spaces, filling up things, filling up time.
And let’s face it. There are empty spaces in our lives others can’t always see that need to be filled. There are empty spaces in our relationships, empty spaces in our heart, in our emotions. There are empty spaces in our identity, who we want to be, who we feel we are, in our job, our title, our self-worth.
We see, feel, experience these empty spaces and what do we do? We get to work. We try to fill up the empty spaces…because that is what we do…but we find that no matter how hard we work, no matter how much we spend, no matter what new title we attach to our name, nothing we do fills up these empty spaces.
And that’s where we can go right back to Genesis 1, because we were not only created to fill, we were created to be filled.
You see, all through Genesis 1, God created, and then He filled. The final creation was man. God created and then God filled. God filled man with the breath of life. He filled man with exactly what he needed, and man became a living being.
Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being. Genesis 2:7
God created man. God fills what He creates.
That means we were created to BE filled.
The word used for fill in the original language means to make complete, to liberally supply, to fill to the top, to cause God’s will to be obeyed and fulfilled in our lives. This is real filling, eternal filling, filling that lasts!
Trying to fill ourselves with anything else will never make us complete. It will ever enable us to follow the will of God for our lives. Our striving only leads to greater emptiness, but His filling always leads to completion. Nothing was created to fill us but Him. Choosing to be filled with anything else will only leave us empty, dry, searching or shopping for temporary things, temporary positions, temporary titles. Just like filling the space on my shelf with a frame created another empty space, filling ourselves with temporary things will only lead to additional empty spaces in our hearts crying out to be filled.
We were never created to fill the empty spaces in our hearts. We can’t because while we were created to fill, only the One Who created us can fill us. Created spaces were meant to be filled and only their Creator can fill them perfectly. God fills our empty spaces with:
His joy and peace
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peaceas you trust in Him… Rom. 15:13
His love
For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given the Holy Spirit to us to fill our hearts with His love. Rom 5:5
His Spirit
And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit… Acts 2:4
Feeling empty today?
Ask your Creator to fill those empty spaces. Stop striving, trying to fill places you were never meant to fill. Give God your empty places and He will fill them. He created you, now let Him fill you to overflowing! You will be amazed at the life that is breathed into you as the One Who created you fills you with what only He can give! Places that were lonely will be filled. Places that were hurt will be healed. Places of defeat will become places of victory! You will be filled to overflowing!
Let’s stop striving and start resting, fill what we are called to fill and let Him fill up what only He can.
And who knows? The picture frame in my office just might get filled up, too!
Praise God we were created in the image of a filling God. Created to fill, created to be filled!