Before Fullness...

There Must Be Emptiness

“Before there can be fullness, there must be emptiness. Before God can fill us with Himself, we must first be emptied of ourselves”.

There are seasons in life when it feels as though everything is being stripped away.

Plans change, doors close, relationships shift and things we once depended on no longer satisfy us. The identity we built around certain roles, achievements, people or circumstances begins to crumble.

Sometimes, we wonder, “God, why are You allowing this to happen?”

However, what if the emptiness isn't the end of the story?
What if God is creating space?

Emptying Isn't Always Punishment

We often associate emptiness with loss. We think that if something has been taken away, something must have gone wrong.

Spiritually, emptiness can be an invitation. Before a cup can be filled with something new, it has to have room.

In the same way, sometimes God allows us to come to the end of ourselves, because He wants us to discover that He was never asking us to live independently of Him.

We can become so full of our own plans, our own expectations, our own fears, our own need for control and our own understanding of who we think we are supposed to be that there is very little room left for God.

Sometimes, God can use the emptying seasons of our lives to loosen our grip on what we were never meant to depend on completely.

God Doesn't Just Want to Change Our Circumstances

Sometimes we pray, “God, change my situation”, but God may be more interested in changing us within the situation.

We ask Him to remove the struggle, while He is teaching us dependence.
We ask Him to open a particular door, while He is teaching us trust.
We ask Him to restore what we lost, while He is preparing us to receive something we could not have carried before.

We want the blessing, but God wants the transformation.
We want fullness, but God sometimes begins with emptiness.

Being Emptied of Ourselves

Being emptied of ourselves doesn't mean losing our personality, our dreams or our individuality.

It means surrendering the parts of us that compete with God's place in our lives: our need to control everything, our need to have all the answers, our desire to be validated by people and even our attachment to things God may be asking us to release, like our pride, our fear, our unforgiveness and our insistence that our way must be the right way.

It is the gradual process of moving from “God, bless what I want” to “God, have Your way with me”.

Yes, that is a difficult prayer, but it is also a transformative one.

Emptiness Can Become Sacred Space

There is something beautiful about the spaces in our lives that we once wished we could fill immediately.

The quiet season, the waiting season, the rebuilding season and the seasons where we don't know what comes next.

We often rush to fill those spaces with anything that will make us feel less uncomfortable.

We might reach for another relationship, another distraction, another achievement, another plan or another attempt to regain control, but perhaps some empty spaces aren't meant to be filled by things. Perhaps they're meant to be filled by God.

Sometimes we have to sit in the stillness long enough to realise that His presence is enough.

God Can Fill What We Surrender

There is a difference between being empty and being abandoned.

You may feel empty, but that doesn't mean God has left you.
You may feel like everything familiar has been removed, but that doesn't mean God is absent.
You may not understand what He is doing, but you can still trust who He is.

Sometimes God can use the holy emptiness within us to draw us away from looking everywhere else for what only He can provide.

Peace that circumstances cannot give, identity that other people's opinions cannot define, love that does not depend on performance, hope that survives disappointment and strength that comes from dependence rather than self-sufficiency.

The Wilderness Has a Purpose

Throughout Scripture, we see people encountering God in wilderness seasons.
The wilderness is uncomfortable, because it strips away our illusions of control, but it can also become a place of revelation.

When there is less noise, we hear differently.
When there are fewer distractions, we see differently.
When we have fewer things to depend on, we discover what or Who we were truly depending on all along.

Sometimes the wilderness isn't where God is trying to destroy you. It's where He is teaching you how to depend on Him.

Don't Despise the Empty Season

If you are currently experiencing emptiness, don't assume that your story is over.
Maybe you're in the middle of a transition.
Maybe something you thought would last forever has ended.
Maybe you're grieving an old version of yourself.
Maybe you're waiting for a door to open and wondering why God hasn't answered yet.

Take heart...

Emptiness can be preparation.

The soil has to be cleared before something new can grow. The old has to make room for the new and sometimes our hands have to release what they're holding before they can receive what God wants to place in them.

You don't have to understand every part of the process. You simply have to remain surrendered.

Let God Fill You

Maybe the prayer for this season isn't:

“God, give me more”.

Maybe it is:

“God, empty me of everything that keeps me from You.”

Empty my pride, empty my fear, empty my need for control, empty my dependence on human approval, empty my old ways of thinking, empty the parts of me that have become attached to things You are asking me to release and then fill me with You.

Fill the places where fear once lived with faith, fill the places where anxiety once lived with peace, fill the places where rejection once lived with identity, fill the places where emptiness once lived with Your presence, because the goal isn't simply to become full of blessings.
The goal is to become full of God.

Perhaps that is the beautiful mystery of the empty season:

God may be making room in you for more of Him. So if you're in a season where everything feels uncertain, don't be so quick to label it as failure. Don't assume that because your life looks empty, God isn't working.

Sometimes the most significant work God does begins in the places where we feel like we have nothing left. Before there can be fullness, there must be emptiness and before God fills our hands with what is next, He may first be teaching us to open them.

Let go, surrender, make room, let God fill you, because what God fills, He can transform.

“He must become greater and greater and I must become less and less”.
— John 3:30 (NLT)

With you on the journey,
– Storm Reagan
Life Coach | Lived Experience Guide