Praying for God to Fill up My EmptinessSample

Longing to Be Loved

We have high expectations for our romantic relationships. We think that if we can just find and keep the right person, or change the person or the relationship we have, then we will be happy. Then we won’t feel so empty. 

But this is a place where God has the opportunity to go to work in the emptiness of our lives. God does some of his best work in our longings to be loved. You and I were never meant to gaze forever into the eyes of another human being and find in him or her all we need. No human relationship, no matter how emotionally intense, can fill up the empty place in our lives that only our heavenly husband can fill. 

From the beginning, the Bible describes God’s relationship with his people, the nation of Israel, in terms of marriage—a marriage in which God intended to satisfy the desires of his bride and capture her heart. But sadly, the marriage between God and his bride, Israel, which started with great promise, went very wrong. Through the prophet Jeremiah, we hear the Lord explain the problem in the marriage:

For my people have done two evil things:

They have abandoned me—

the fountain of living water.

And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns

that can hold no water at all!

Jeremiah 2:13

God’s perspective, according to Jeremiah, is that it is a great evil when we prefer something other than God himself as the source of what fills our lives with joy. It is wrong, and not merely a bad habit, to approach each day seeking to savor the taste of something we find in this world—be it a substance, an experience, or a person—while starving ourselves of the companionship of God. It breaks the heart of God when we prefer to sip on the things this world offers while refusing to drink from the fountain he provides when we have no taste for him, no appetite for him.

Anyone or anything that rivals the place that belongs to God alone is the well we have dug for ourselves to drink from. Eventually, we will discover that this well, this cistern, is cracked and broken. It won’t hold water. It can’t contain all of our expectations. Ultimately it will be unable to deliver the happiness and security and life we crave.

Have you been looking for a person to fulfill you in the way that only God can? Do you find yourself moving from one thing to another, trying to fill the void? Jumping from one relationship to another? From one job to the next? From one vacation to the next? Jesus comes to each of us and says, “Come to me and drink. Discover that I am the only one who can quench your thirst.”

Question to consider:If those closest to you were to identify what animates your life, what you talk about most, and arrange your schedule to enjoy most, what would it be? Your favorite sports team? Your favorite hobby? Your political party? Your professional pursuits?

Prayer: Lord, I ask you to work in the emptiness of my life, calling me away from the broken cisterns I keep trying to drink from, that doesn’t hold the water I need to live. Give me the living water that will quench the thirst I have to love and be loved in return with a love that is strong enough, powerful enough, and enduring enough to exceed my expectations and desires.