An Empty Life
Then Samuel said to the people, “Do not fear. You have done all this wickedness; yet do not turn aside from following the LORD, but serve the LORD with all your heart. And do not turn aside; for then you would go after empty things which cannot profit or deliver, for they are nothing.” – 1 Samuel 12:20-21 NKJV.
Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. – Ephesians 5:6 NKJV.
Would you pay £1,500 (about $2,300) for a painting empty of any paint, as in a blank canvas? Would you pay even more for a sculpture that was just an empty space, because the sculpture was not really there? The Arts Council England, also paid the artist Agnieszka Kurant for a movie shot with an empty camera, as in no film in it. At least one British official (Matt Hancock) seemed to think that paying for nothing was wrong, and he called the so-called empty art, “a staggering waste.” I’m no art critic, but it could be that he is right! (The Sun, London – December 2, 2010)
Even more of a waste than empty art, is an empty life. Samuel warned the people, after God gave them a king, that to now turn away from God would only lead to “empty things.” There are many today seeking to lead you away from God. They are able to say all the right things, but they are only saying, “empty words.” The apostle Paul warns that we can be cheated “…through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of the men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ (Colossians 2:8).” What can we be cheated out of? Life. Real life. We can be cheated out of the abundant life (John 10:10b) that Jesus came to give us.
What are you giving yourself to? What are you giving your life to? Is your goal in life to have as much money as you can possibly accumulate? Is your goal to have the most toys, the best car, the best truck, the biggest house, the most land? Or, have you given up on even those kinds of goals, and instead you are just doing whatever drugs you can lay your hands on? Maybe you are just drinking your way into oblivion? All of that stuff, the material things, the drugs, the alcohol; all of it, brings only more emptiness into your life.
How can you end the pain of an empty life? Not by adding more emptiness, not by compounding the problem. The apostle Paul directs us to the One who can give us fulfillment, instead of emptiness. Here’s what God says through Paul in Colossians, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving (Colossians 2:6-7).” Only in Jesus can we find true meaning in life. Walk in Him, build your life on Jesus Christ, because: “For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power (Colossians 2:9-10).”
Instead of having an empty, meaningless, and unfulfilled life; you can be “complete” by living your life for the Lord Jesus. I guess the only question is this: What are you waiting for? Give your life, give your heart, your whole heart to Jesus. He’s knocking at the door, and He wants to come in (Revelation 3:20).
(Instead of having an empty, meaningless, and unfulfilled life; you can be “complete” by living your life for the Lord Jesus.)