“You, God, are my God, earnestly I seek you; I thirst for you, my whole being longs for you, in a dry and parched land where there is no water.” (Psalm 63:1 NIV)
The LORD is always looking for a void—a NOTHING—in which to work.
In Mark’s Gospel, chapter 9, a man came to Jesus asking for Him to heal his troubled son. Jesus said, “All things are possible to him that believes.” Immediately, the desperate father said with tears, “Lord, I DO believe; help my unbelief.” In other words, “Lord, help me! Heal the HOLE in my faith.”
We look at his lack of faith, or void, negatively. We tend to forget that God does his best work in our weakness—in our nothingness. In fact, the weaker we realize we are, the better. Jesus says, “My strength is made perfect (made complete) in (your) weakness.” (2 Corinthians 12:9 NKJV)
Most builders will agree: they’d rather build from scratch than to try to rebuild their design from an existing structure. Similarly, Jesus came to build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. His desire is to build it from scratch, using the rawest of materials to create, by His own design, the Kingdom of God.
Of course, God can, and will, USE our unique gifts, abilities, skills, and strengths—after all, He gave them to us. But He doesn’t NEED them. He can use anything to work His will and build His Kingdom. In fact, I believe it’s when we’re down to NOTHING that God walks in and says, “Now THIS is MY ZONE! I work BEST when I have absolutely NOTHING to work with!” Then HE gets ALL the glory, not us.
“We have no trouble believing that God made the entire universe out of nothing without any help from anyone or anything else. Yet, we struggle with the thought that God can accomplish something great in our lives without our help. It is when God gets us down to nothing that He can make something from us.” —Dr. John Goetsch
Look at this: In Revelation 3:14, John was instructed to write to the church of the Laodiceans: “These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the CREATION of God … ‘Because thou sayest, ‘I am rich, and increased with goods, and have NEED of NOTHING’’… Exactly so!! In essence, Jesus was saying, “Yes, Laodicea, you DO NEED to return to a state of humble nothingness. Because, in reality, you don’t even know how ‘wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked’ you really ARE!”
Think about it:
- When Elisha asked the widow, “What do you have in the house?” She answered, “NOTHING, but a pot of oil.” (2 Kings 4:2) When Jesus asked His disciples, “What food do you have to feed the people?” They replied, “NOTHING, but five loaves and two fishes.” (Mark 6:38) I believe the LORD, in His creative power, did MORE with their “NOTHINGs” than with the scanty bit of oil or the pitiful few loaves and fishes. Remember, He created the WHOLE world … from absolutely NOTHING.
- Sometimes like Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5) we say, “I’m withholding nothing!” In truth, with fingers crossed, our “nothing” really means there’s still something we’re holding back—our pride in our humility, perhaps. Our “nothing” is not truly “NOTHING” until it is surrendered.
Can you admit it? Saying, “LORD, I’m weak. Empty. Depleted. I’m down to literally NOTHING …” Think of others who ALSO felt that way—think of Moses. Joseph. Mary. Corrie Ten Boom. Though they also felt that they were threadbare and NOTHING, they added … “but I’m not withholding anything—not even my NOTHING—from You!!” Then the LORD of Glory responds, “At last! That’s what I’ve been waiting to hear!” The angels grab their instruments and get ready to rejoice—it’s the Eighth Day of Creation, and they know God is about to CREATE a MIRACLE!
GOD + my nothing = ANYTHING!
Prayer: Dear Jesus, my King, I have nothing to give You but my life and my need. But, LORD, ALL my life and ALL my need I surrender to You! I offer You my total nothingness. Make of it what YOU WILL—for THINE is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory—FOREVER! AMEN!
(Part 2 of 2)
