Trading Empty for Full

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Trading Empty for Full (By Ron Hutchcraft)

Water! Drinking lots of water is good for your health. So I usually have a big mug of water in my office and bottles of water with me when I travel. A while back, my wife and I were driving to some ministry events, and another couple from our team was traveling with us in the back seat. And they got to be the keeper of the water and the snacks, of course. But let's stick with the healthy stuff. This little drill developed, thanks to the thoughtfulness of my buddy in the back seat. When I finished a bottle of water, I handed the empty bottle back to him so it could be dumped in our garbage bag. But as I handed my empty to him, there he was with a full bottle to place in my other hand.

Not a bad deal. I gave my friend what was empty and he replaced it with what was full. Just like Jesus. I handed him a life that was pretty empty, and He gave me back a life that is amazingly full. He's done that for countless people. He would love to do that for you.

I know that because of what He said in John 10:10 . It's our word for today from the Word of God. He said, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; (that's the devil He's talking about) I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full." I remember talking with a senior football player at our local high school about all the great things that had happened in his senior year. He told me he had wanted four things: a championship, a scholarship, more friends, and a closer family. He had gotten all four. But then he actually looked at me with tears in his eyes and he asked in total frustration, "Then why am I so empty?"

That's the question a lot of people have - people of all ages. "Why am I so empty?" Two days after I talked with that football player, the successful and deeply religious president of a local service club said basically the same thing to me. There is this emptiness that nothing seems to fill. And it's not for lack of trying. We've hoped that the hole in our heart would be filled by a relationship, by achievement, by experiences, by a family, or by a religion. But we keep coming up empty, unsatisfied, unfulfilled, and wondering what goes in the hole in our heart.

Jesus goes in the hole in your heart. The Bible actually reveals that "all things were created by Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16 ). You were created by Jesus, you were created for Jesus, and you're going to have a hole in your heart until you have Jesus. Tragically, we have chosen to live "for me" instead of "for Him." And this hijacking of our life from our Creator, this sin, has put us in a futile orbit away from Him. But that's why Jesus came. That's why Jesus died - to pay the price for our rebellion so we could finally belong to the One we were made for.

This day could be the day when you hand your empty to Jesus, and He gives you in exchange a life that's finally full, because He's in it. But you have to reach for Him. You have to surrender the self-rule of your life, and you put your trust in Him to be the forgiver of every wrong thing you've ever done. He's the only one who can forgive it, because He's the only one who died to pay the price for it.

If you don't know you belong to Him; there's been that moment in your life where you have made what He died on the cross for you personally. Well, this could be the day to do that. And you do it just by talking to Him, and maybe in words something like this: "Jesus, I was made by you. I was made for you. I have lived pretty much for me, and I'm done with that. I resign the running of my own life. Jesus, I believe that you died to pay the death penalty for every wrong thing I have ever done. You loved me that much. I want you, and beginning today I give myself to you."

You've been empty because you've been missing the One you were made for. Today's your day to trade in empty for full.