“I have an iron will, and all of my will has always been to conquer some horrible feeling of inadequacy…I push past one spell of it and discover myself as a special human being and then I get to another stage and think I’m mediocre and uninteresting. Again and again...My drive in life is from this horrible fear of being mediocre. And that’s always pushing me, pushing me. Because even though I’ve become Somebody, I still have to prove that I’m Somebody. My struggle has never ended and it probably never will.” (Madonna, “The Misfit”, Vanity Fair, 1991)
“He was a stimulus junkie. The line of work he was in bred anxiety and self-centered concerns. He would always say, ‘You’re only as good as your last performance…’” (Susan Schneider, Robin Williams third wife. https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/how-robin-williams-was-being-torn-apart-and-couldnt-fight-back)
“…I didn’t want to see another day.” (Michael Phelps, https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/olympics/bal-michael-phelps-explains-his-spiral-to-nbc-s-matt-lauer-i-didn-t-want-to-see-another-day-20160427-story.html)
4 secrets about our empty souls and how they are filled
Contentment - a sense of satisfaction/fullness of soul regarding circumstances and self that enables a response of thankfulness for any good thing experienced without demanding more, a response of generosity for others in need without grasping for what is owned, a response of rejoicing in others successes without needing that success to be true of me.
I. Fullness of Soul Frees You to Truly Love Others
Philippians 4:10 - But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity. Not that I speak from want…Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my affliction.
A. Without using your friends - “Not that I speak from want” (v. 11)
B. Focus on genuine godliness instead of gifts - “you have done well to share in my affliction” (v. 14)
II. Fullness of Soul Is Learned (v. 11 & 12)
Philippians 4:11- Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be… I have learned the secret…
Exodus 20:17 - You shall not covet … anything that belongs to your neighbor.
Romans 13:9 - For this, “You shall not commit adultery, you shall not murder, you shall not steal, you shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
III. Fullness of Soul Handles Prosperity and Need (v. 12)
Any and every circumstance...
- Humble means and prosperity
- Going hungry and being filled
- Suffering need and having abundance
A. The despair of need - “I won’t be happy until I get…”
1 Corinthians 8:1 - Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality.
B. The despair of prosperity - “I have got much but I want more, why am I not content?”
In The Village Voice, a counter cultural newspaper Cythia Heimel, a non-Christian, makes an interesting observation:
“I pity celebrities, no I really do – {names of specific celebrities} were once perfectly pleasant human beings. But now their wrath is awful. I think when God wants to play a really rotten practical joke on you he grants you your deepest wish and then laughs merrily when you realize you want to kill yourself. You see {names of the same specific celebrities} wanted fame. They worked, they pushed and the morning after each of them became famous they wanted to take an overdose. Because that giant thing they were striving for, that fame thing that was going to make everything OK, that was going to make their lives bearable, that was going to provide them with personal fulfillment and happiness had happened and they were still them. The disillusionment turned them howling and insufferable.” (Cynthia Heimel, “Tongue in Chic,” The Village Voice, January 2, 1990)
Without the “secret” to a full soul, humanity’s response to the despair of need and prosperity will be:
- In the extreme - suicide
- Doubling down by pursuing a more intense or different path toward my desire
- Turning to a different form of covetousness to numb the pain of unfulfilled longings - substance abuse, numbing, escape
- Becoming indifferent/apathetic/cynical/ passionless/stoic/withdrawn in life
IV. Fullness of Soul Comes Only Through a Heart Filled with Christ
Philippians 4:13 - I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
“Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.” (C.S. Lewis from Mere Christianity, book 3, section 10 on Hope)
“My brethren, the reason why you have not got contentment in the things of the world is not because you have not got enough of them. That is not the reason. But the reason is because they are not things proportionable to that immortal soul of yours that is capable of God Himself. Many men think that when they are troubled and have not got contentment, it is because they have but a little in the world, and if they had more then they would be content. That is just as if a man were hungry, and to satisfy his craving stomach he should gape and hold open his mouth to take in the wind, and then should think that the reason why he is not satisfied is because he has not got enough of the wind. No, the reason is because the thing is not suitable to a craving stomach. (Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment)
What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.” (Blaise Pascal, Section 7 Morality and Doctrine, Pensees https://www.gutenberg.org/files/18269/18269-h/18269-h.htm)
Practical Steps to Learn How to Fill an Empty Soul
1. Consciously acknowledge your unfulfilled longings.
2. Recognize each unfulfilled longing as a pointer to the divine relationship we have been alienated from.
- We are wanting folks to love us - ultimately God’s love
- We are wanting the blessings of this earth - ultimately God’s blessing
- We are wanting meaningful work with purpose - ultimately God’s purpose-filled way of life
- We are wanting the approval of others - ultimately God’s acceptance
3. Remember the “one thing” - Christ, who on the cross emptied His soul so that your soul could be filled up one day.
4. Confess any ways you are striving to be fulfilled/satisfied other than Christ.
5. Out of God’s love, hope and promise, cultivate daily thanksgiving to God for any and each good experience of a comfortable shelter, warm clothes, tasty food, a beautiful creation vista, the kind words/actions of a friend, meaningful service, a successful accomplishment, etc. Practice saying, “I am full in Christ. It is enough!”
6. Present your needs and concerns to God in prayer. (Phil 4:6-7)
7. Invest your time, talents, and treasures in others without expecting a personal return knowing that God (not others) has and will fill you up.
8. Enjoy the blessing of a fuller soul.
Rain drops on Roses
Whiskers on Kittens
Bright Copper Kettle
Warm Woolen Mittens
Silver White Winters that Melt into Spring
These are a few of my favorite things
Julie Andrews singing “My Favorite things” in the Sound of Music makes us smile
A sense of satisfaction sweeps over the soul
God has placed within our world many great and beautiful things, experiences, feelings
Cookie dough Ice Cream
Standing on the edge of the Grand canyon at Sunset beholding the rich colors of the pained desert
A satisfying sigh of rest when looking back on the completion of a job well done
A sweeping musical score that delights with each new measure of notes
The wholesome beauty of a faithful elderly couple married for 50 years who are more romantic now than when they were dating.
The first time you had an edifying relationship with another person.
One of the experiences that God used as a step to lead me to ministry was the first time I began to invest in someone outside of myself.
Pastor Greiner jokes that I was the definition of a nerd growing up—he is right.
I found great delight in computer games and academics versus other things in life.
As a result, I did not find myself gravitating to relationships.
My senior year at college my mentor challenged me to live outside of my self and start a small group.
I decided to follow his advice.
My bible study ended up having 2 freshmen and a sophomore in it.
Each week I would lead those men in learning the spiritual disciplines that my mentor was teaching me.
I can remember distinctly the exhilaration I felt when those men began looking to me for guidance and help.
I can remember distinctly the joy that I felt when I was able to be a blessing to those men.
Nobody had ever really looked to me in that way before.
One young man in particular was struggling with life issues and would simply want to hang out with me and want to hear this 22-year old’s wisdom. Pretty Scary right!
I developed edifying friendships with these men…
Growing up…I knew people wanted to hang out with the super star athletes, or the popular people, or the good-looking people…but the nerds really?!…. feelings of someone enjoying your presence were foreign to this nerd.
However, the delight of being a blessing to another was soon twisted by my heart.
Soon thankfulness for having these friends and being a blessing to them was not enough.
I began to need to be needed by these men.
I can remember the angry jealousy in my heart if they asked somebody else for advice other than me.
I can remember the ache if they did not always invite me to some activity.
Apparently, the theme song of my heart was the 1980’s song by Cheap Trick—I want you to want me, I need you to need me.
I wanted these men to think I was amazing in every way all the time and for them to never want to leave my presence.
It was not enough for me to simply be thankful for good friendships and the opportunity to be a blessing I WANTED MORE….WHAT I HAD WAS NOT ENOUGH.
When I looked for the delight of a friendship focused on me to fill up my heart it could never do so….
There is something about a heart that is empty that becomes a giant black hole sucking up everything that comes upon its horizon.
Or, when I look to raindrops on roses to fill me… a farm field of roses and all the water drops of the ocean would never be enough for me.
Please turn in your Bibles to Philippians 4:10 which is on page 156 in the back section of the bible in the chair in front of you.
We come to our study in the book of Philippians where the apostle Paul turns his attention to some closing words to this dear congregation that he had pastored.
What had probably stimulated Paul’s writing was that he had received a love offering, a monetary gift from the Philippians when he was in prison.
Apparently, the church had committed to giving a love offering.
Then as you will see, some circumstance had interrupted that completion of that gift.
On the occasion of this writing, the commitment had been completed at the hands of a man named Epaphroditus
Epaphroditus also had delivered an update regarding some of the challenges of the congregation as well.
So, Paul takes the occasion of receiving the gift to write from his heart to thank them, and to provide some words of encouragement to the church
Read with me starting in verse 10, he is referring to the financial gift.
10 But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity.
11 Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.
12 I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.
13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
14 Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my affliction.
The secret!?
How is being full or being content a secret?
Let me illustrate…
When you go into a beautiful house with a perfectly manicured lawn does not the heart utter a whisper…what would it be like if I had this.
When you have a delightful vacation, and the cares of the real world fled from your mind for a moment, do you not yearn for just one more day.
It is evident that contentment is a secret from birth….the incessant question…from your young ones….can I have more??? Just one more.
Fullness of soul is elusive to humanity.
When have you heard… these words with food, money, praise, possessions, relationships, “ It is enough….?!”
Contentment is a “secret”
The elusive nature of contentment is evident when Madonna says in a 1991 Vanity fair article.
“I have an iron will, and all of my will has always been to conquer some horrible feeling of inadequacy…I push past one spell of it and discover myself as a special human being and then I get to another stage and think I’m mediocre and uninteresting. Again and again...My drive in life is from this horrible fear of being mediocre. And that’s always pushing me, pushing me. Because even though I’ve become Somebody, I still have to prove that I’m Somebody. My struggle has never ended and it probably never will.” – Madonna, “The Misfit”, Vanity Fair, 1991.
The secret eluded the great comedian Robin Williams who committed suicide. His third wife stated,
He was a stimulus junkie The line of work he was in bred anxiety and self-centered concerns. He would always say, “You’re only as good as your last performance”—Susan Schneider, Robin Williams third wife. https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/how-robin-williams-was-being-torn-apart-and-couldnt-fight-back
The secret eluded the most decorated Olympian in history, Michael Phelps who while in the depths of alcohol abuse said,
“I didn’t want to see another day” – Michael Phelps, https://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/olympics/bal-michael-phelps-explains-his-spiral-to-nbc-s-matt-lauer-i-didn-t-want-to-see-another-day-20160427-story.html
Contentment is so elusive…!! What do you say we learn together this morning what that secret is…?!!
Our church’s theme this year is Growing in Gospel Gratitude…
And in our verses today we will grow in gratitude By Learning The Secret of Fullness of Soul
Phil 4:10–14 reveals 4 secrets about our empty souls and how they are filled.
From the outset here, let me define contentment for us this morning.
Contentment—a sense of satisfaction/fullness of soul regarding circumstances and self that enables a response of thankfulness for any good thing experienced without demanding more, a response of generosity for others in need without grasping for what is owned, a response of rejoicing in others successes without needing that success to be true of me.
The first secret of contentment or fullness of soul is
I. Fullness of Soul Frees You to Truly Love Others
4:10But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, that now at last you have revived your concern for me; indeed, you were concerned before, but you lacked opportunity.11Not that I speak from want…14 Nevertheless, you have done well to share with me in my affliction.
Notice Paul’s words were not…
—I rejoice because you final got your check in the mail to me!
—What took you so long? I have been sitting here in prison and you have been out free, what took you so long.
Paul indicates he is not rejoicing because he views them as objects to meet his need…
Contentment allows an individual to truly love your friends without ….
Without using your friends—“Not that I speak from want” (v. 11)
And notice Paul’s last statement—“you have done well to share in my affliction.
Fullness of soul allows us to focus on genuine godliness —not the gift.
Focus on genuine godliness instead of gifts—“you have done well to share in my affliction.” (v. 14)
Paul’s primary focus was on their godliness not their gift
The Philippians demonstrated their godliness by sharing in Paul’s affliction by their sacrificial monetary gift.
Listen: They were giving up financial resources that could have contributed to their own welfare for the welfare of another.
What is that? Christ like!
Remember that when I preached to you last time?
I defined the “ONE THING” of the Christian life—to Know Christ which included items like, found in Christ’s righteousness, the power of His resurrection and this one….the “fellowship of sharing in Christ’s suffering.”
The fellowship of sharing in Christ’s suffering!!!
What is the Philippians actions except the relinquishing of my grasp on my potential well being for the benefit of another…..??
That’s the ticket! That’s the ONE THING!
The gift is ancillary in light of the growth in godliness of Knowing Christ in this way
Pastor Paul, commended them for their focus on the one thing….
Fullness of soul allows us to truly love another without using our friends and with out focusing on the gits they may give us.
Faith Friends, I told you the first Brent bible study story for a reason.
My first genuine effort at ministry which I really enjoyed later became twisted because of my heart.
The aches and pains I experience when they did not respond to my relationship investments as I wanted them too often resulted in a despair and depression in me.
My heart was like a giant black hole that if left unchecked would suck the life out of those men.
I was on the verge of become like a living parasite sucking the life out of all the people around me who did not give me what I think I deserved or needed.
Friends, let’s ask a few diagnostic questions regarding your relationships….(spouse, child, friend, boss)
- Are you regularly angry with that individual when he/she does not respond to you as you wish to your relational investment?
- Are you hyper critical that individual?
- Do you find yourself in depression or despair because of your unfulfilled expectations on that individual?
- Do you find yourself thinking, look at what I did for that individual at least he/she could….
- Are you focused on rejoicing in the gifts and encouragement that he/she gives you rather than commending the individual for choosing godly righteous actions?
If you are, your soul is running on empty and not on full.
Fullness of soul allows us to truly love another without using our friends and without focusing on the gits they may give us.
The second secret regarding our empty souls is that
II. Fullness of Soul Is Learned (v. 11 & 12)
4:11Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be …12… I have learned the secret…
Say, “learned”
This is truly astounding from a spiritual saint like Paul.
Can you imagine the adult apostle Paul having to learn fullness of soul?
And this was a relatively recent learning experience for him!
He only just went to Christ’s Contentment Academy as an adult. 😊
He speaks of having experienced plenty and want.
Well when did that happen?
When he became a Christian and was exposed to sharing in the sufferings of Messiah.
On his missionary journeys he regularly lacked physical provisions, had to find jobs, but then, he would get a gift and have plenty…
Fullness of soul is learned even among adults…
And it must be learned by the Christian.
You say, Brent, this is not a commandment here.
That’s right it not.
But what is the last commandment to God’s people out of the 10?
Exodus 20:17 “You shall not covet … anything that belongs to your neighbor.”
What is coveting? Intense wanting!! The empty black hole of the heart!
Coveting is the empty soul trying to get filled.
In Romans 13:9 Paul sums up the commandments in order to point out the opposite of coveting, soul sucking, heart— love or giving
Romans 13:9 For this, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
A Full soul loves…—Point one….
And this has to be learned.
I wish I could say that my black hole of a heart was plugged after that bible study I did.
As you know God continued working in my heart through my aerospace career and I started wanting to build people and not rockets anymore
After getting my Masters in Aerospace Engineering I decided to go into ministry.
After receiving a theological education, I came back here. Pastor Viars led faith church to hired me.
In my early years of ministry—guess what—the ugly empty heart reared its head again.
On occasion, as people do, individuals leave Faith Church. Faith Church is not the only good church in town.
But the ones departing that bothered me the most were not Rob’s (Trey’s or Dustin’s) disciples who left.
But it would especially bother me if mine were to leave.
I had to learn that these were not my disciples but Christ.
I had to learn that I invest out of my well-being for the well-being of others regardless of if they ever return that well-being…
Over my 25 years here God has grown me in this area of contentment…but it had to be learned.
The third secret of fullness of soul is
III. Fullness of Soul Handles Prosperity and Need (v. 12)
Paul said his contentment has been learned in…
Any and every circumstance...
- Humble means and prosperity
- Going hungry and being filled
- Suffering need and having abundance
Fullness of soul is able to handle need and prosperity
These are the two bell-weather indicators of the condition of the heart
By “handle” I mean in prosperity, the soul is able to be thankful and generous.
In need, the soul is able to be quiet and trusting God.
It is precisely the circumstances of need and prosperity that reveals whether your soul is full or your soul is empty.
The first one is fairly obvious…
A despairing response to lack reveals an empty soul.
The despair of need— “I won’t be happy until I get…”
Paul is strictly speaking here about material goods…
Literally— not having certain means by which to go about basic life functions
Yet, whether you are experiencing real or perceived needs, the despairing response of the heart reveals an empty soul when my attitude is “I won’t be happy until I get…”
Friends what is the condition of your soul? Full or empty?
It does not have to be empty even amidst extreme need.
Notice another group of believers that Paul refers to who had empty circumstances but full hearts!
1 Cor 8:1 Now, brethren, we wish to make known to you the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, 2that in a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of their liberality.
Two things were overflowing—abundant joy and deep poverty!!
There are people living the secret before our eyes.
Oh that our hearts were like that
In the abundant trials I am full
In the overflowing relationship problems I am loving
In the never ending bad news of this world, I am joyful.
The secret of the full soul….
Not only does the despair of need reveals an emptiness of soul.
But also the despair of “prosperity” reveals an emptiness as well.
The despair of prosperity — “I have got much but I want more, why am I not content?”
You say, Brent this doesn’t make sense…if I got what I wanted in my need I would be happy.
When you actually arrive at being prosperous—like Madonna, Robin Williams, Michael Phelps,—then you live happily ever after right?
That is just not so!
We live our lives trying to get all that we want and if by chance we get it, we realize that we don’t want anything we have…it does not and cannot satisfy.
Why are not the rich with their riches the happiest and most fulfilled, generous people in the world?
The late Cynthia g was a provocative, feminist, satirical writer.
In The Village Voice, a counter cultural newspaper Cynthia Heimel, a non-Christian, makes an interesting observation.
I pity celebrities, no I really do – { names of specific celebrities} were once perfectly pleasant human beings. But now their wrath is awful. I think when God wants to play a really rotten practical joke on you he grants you your deepest wish and then laughs merrily when you realize you want to kill yourself. You see {names of the same specific celebrities} wanted fame. They worked, they pushed and the morning after each of them became famous they wanted to take an overdose. Because that giant thing they were striving for, that fame thing that was going to make everything OK, that was going to make their lives bearable, that was going to provide them with personal fulfillment and happiness had happened and they were still them. The disillusionment turned them howling and insufferable. —Cynthia Heimel, “Tongue in Chic,” The Village Voice, January 2, 1990.
Cynthia is observing the dynamic of the elusive secret in action among the prosperous.
Even fame, wealth, possessions are not the secret to filling up that soul of yours.
Without living the secret to full soul….the frustration of the empty soul, the unfulfilled longings, the black hole of the heart has only been dealt with by mankind in the following ways…
Without the “secret” to a full soul, humanity’s response to the despair of need and prosperity will be:
- In the extreme—suicide
I am empty and will always be, noting satisfies—what is the point of living?
- Doubling down by pursuing a more intense or different path toward my desire
- A more intense or different fitness routine
- A different spouse
- A different job
- A different boss
- A different friend
- Turning to a different form of covetousness to numb the pain of unfulfilled longings—substance abuse, numbing, escape.
- Becoming indifferent/apathetic/cynical/ passionless/stoic/withdrawn in life
And in this last state, you will cease to invest in life. Your heart will become as C.S. Lewis says, unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable as you have wrapped it up carefully to not love any more.
So,
Fullness of soul enables you to truly love
Fullness of soul has to be learned
Fullness of soul handles need and prosperity
But Pastor Brent you say, you still have not given me the real key…
Okay here it is….
IV. Fullness of Soul Comes Only Through a Heart Filled with Christ
4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
Paul returns to the “ONE THING” that I spoke to you about weeks ago from Philippians 3—Knowing Christ—That is the key! That is the secret!
Why is this the case friend?
Why is my heart without Christ a black hole sucking up everything and life out of people?
Why will all pursuits of pleasures and treasures in this earth end in despair?
The one reason is this:
Your soul was not made to be filled by the creation but by the Creator!
Your soul was not made to be filled by gifts but by God Himself.
As Augustine said, God made us for himself and our heart will be restless until it finds its rest in God.
Your empty soul will be the perpetual black hole until something infinite is able to put a plug in it.
The thirsty soul will not stop thirsting until it drinks the living water of God
The secret—in the words of C.S. Lewis
Creatures are not born with desires unless satisfaction for those desires exists. A baby feels hunger: well, there is such a thing as food. A duckling wants to swim: well, there is such a thing as water. Men feel sexual desire: well, there is such a thing as sex. If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. If none of my earthly pleasures satisfy it, that does not prove that the universe is a fraud. Probably earthly pleasures were never meant to satisfy it, but only to arouse it, to suggest the real thing. If that is so, I must take care, on the one hand, never to despise, or be unthankful for, these earthly blessings, and on the other, never to mistake them for the something else of which they are only a kind of copy, or echo, or mirage. I must keep alive in myself the desire for my true country, which I shall not find till after death; I must never let it get snowed under or turned aside; I must make it the main object of life to press on to that other country and to help others to do the same.—C.S. Lewis from Mere Christianity, book 3, section 10 on Hope.
Puritan Jeremiah Burroughs, author of The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment concurs
My brethren, the reason why you have not got contentment in the things of the world is not because you have not got enough of them. That is not the reason. But the reason is because they are not things proportionable to that immortal soul of yours that is capable of God Himself. Many men think that when they are troubled and have not got contentment, it is because they have but a little in the world, and if they had more then they would be content. That is just as if a man were hungry, and to satisfy his craving stomach he should gape and hold open his mouth to take in the wind, and then should think that the reason why he is not satisfied is because he has not got enough of the wind. No, the reason is because the thing is not suitable to a craving stomach. – Jeremiah Burroughs, The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment
Achievement, Relationships, Wealth, Fame, are not suitable to fill my empty soul….
Blaise Pascal 17th Century Christian French Mathematician, who is famously paraphrased as “God made us with a God sized hole in our heart” actually said,
What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself”—Blaise Pascal, Section 7 Morality and Doctrine, Pensees https://www.gutenberg.org/files/18269/18269-h/18269-h.htm
Christian thinkers from times past agree on the secret.
But how is this possible we who were empty because of a broken relationship with God can now have God fill up the soul
How is that possible?
There is one way and one way only.
There was one who was full of God…He was the fullness of God.
From eternity past, he had only ever known the fullness of His relationship with His Father.
But as we have studied in this book, He emptied Himself (Phil 2) to the point of death on the cross.
And on that cross, as we studied last year in the Gospel of John, on the cross he cried out—“I thirst”
Certainly, in his inhumane condition his body was dehydrated for loss of blood and fluids.
But at that time, other Gospel writers recorded that he cried out, “My God my God why have you forsaken me.
He was experiencing the emptiness that we deserved
He thirsted, He coveted—not for the things of this earth—But thirsted as the dear pants for water so His soul thirsted for His Father.
He was emptied and left thirsting so that we might be filled and restored to a relationship with our Creator.
Friends, let’s get real practical Faith Church.
So, how do I do I become filled, content?
When I am feeling that ache or pain of soul that is screaming fill me up…I am empty.
Practical Steps to Learn How to Fill an Empty Soul
- Consciously acknowledge your unfulfilled longings
—I am living in a broken world having been separated from that which would have fulfilled my soul—God.
- Recognize each unfulfilled longing as a pointer to the divine relationship we have been alienated from.
- · We are wanting folks to love us—ultimately God’s love
- · We are wanting the blessings of this earth—ultimately God’s blessing
- · We are wanting meaningful work with purpose—ultimately God’s purpose-filled way of life
- · We are wanting the approval of others—ultimately God’s acceptance
- Remember the “one thing”—Christ, who on the cross emptied His soul so that your soul could be filled up one day.
- Confess any ways you are striving to be fulfilled/satisfied other than Christ.
- Out of God’s love, hope and promise, cultivate daily thanksgiving to God for any and each good experience of a comfortable shelter, warm clothes, tasty food, a beautiful creation vista, the kind words/actions of a friend, meaningful service, a successful accomplishment, etc. Practice saying, “I am full in Christ. It is enough!”
- Present your needs and concerns to God in prayer (Phil 4:6–7).
- Invest your time, talents, and treasures in others without expecting a personal return knowing that God (not others) has and will fill you up.
- Enjoy the blessing of a fuller soul
Rain drops on Roses
Whiskers on Kittens
What are your favorite things….?
Your soul was only mean to be filled with the one thing Christ
When you are learning to have Christ be the fullness of your heart
You will handle plenty and need with a calmness of soul.
And you will also be able to truly love others without needing them.
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