SOUL’d OUT
October 4th, 2023
Psalm 18:19, ‘He stood me up in a wide-open field. I stood there saved; surprised to be loved!’ (MSG)
Genesis 35:11, ‘”I am God, and I Am more than enough.”’
We were designed with an end in mind. We were fashioned from fragments of dirt, and the breath from the God of the Universe filled our lungs. We were created with a cavity within us, needing to be filled; a God-shaped, God-sized hole longing to be imbued. We were intended to worship, to magnify, to glorify something other than ourselves. To be sold-out, brimming with adoration, overflowing with praise, infatuated in what we behold, to be stuffed to overwhelming, depleted, drained and emptied of everything else but exaltation and reverence for the object of our affection.
Unfortunately, because our God is a Gentleman, He gave each of us a gift of choice. He is not a totalitarian ruler Who demands our allegiance to Him. His greatest desire is that we will come to a place in each of our lives that causes us to recognize what we have been choosing up to now is not filling the void inside us, where we turn our focus on His face and conceive of the addition and difference He can add to our lives. He will never demand my attention and affection, but He surely will receive it wholeheartedly and joyfully, with great passion. He has a choir of angels who rejoice whenever another child decides to follow Jesus. While a Holy God desires that we invite Him in to fill our holes, He also knows that we often don’t, at least not without circumstances that cause us to cry ‘Help!’
What happens is we all too frequently attempt to occupy the hollowness within us with just anything offering a sensation of supply. Remember, we were created to celebrate and worship something, to fill the hollow spaces inside of us with something (or someone) which causes the aloneness and emptiness to dissipate. We choose some silly things, but also some things that make sense too. At the end of the day, it is often wasted, because the only thing which truly satisfies and fills the emptiness inside, is a flourishing relationship with the God of the Universe. Whether it is a person or stuff, maybe money and prosperity, or alcohol and drugs; for many it is food, and for some it is even work or prestige, there are so many things in this world that vie for our attention, that we attempt to use as fillers. I am here to tell you, there is nothing but Jesus that will genuinely achieve the end result humanity is in search: our contents being absorbed, permeated and filled.
She trudged the final steps, picking her way over loose stones on the rock-strewn path. The sun was high in the sky, heat melting like butter on the sand. Her empty bucket was a leaden weight in her hand. At least she was alone; this time of day, there was never another soul fool enough to be traipsing about in the noonday aridness. The woman squeezed her eyelids shut against blowing dirt. She could make the trip for water with her eyes closed. Today was one of those days.
She sensed him before she saw him. She was accustomed to the feeling of aloneness anywhere she wandered. Her heart paused, almost turning back. She prepared for unkindness, with which she had grown acquainted, tenaciously debating how badly she needed to fill her jug. Slitting her gaze, the woman peeked to see if she recognized the presence she had felt, again weighing her tenacity.
Suddenly she heard, “Give me a drink.” How dare he, this stranger demanding something of her as if they knew one another! If she were to be honest though, she felt as if she did know him, and as if he knew her, heart and soul, inside-out. “You have nothing to draw with and nothing to fill,” she replied in a clipped tone. At once, he was talking to her about something called living water. She shrugged her shoulders; water was water, wet and refreshing and necessary. In fact, the way water shimmied, it looked like it was alive. Yet, he was speaking of a water that was even more fulfilling, springs that would gush endlessly from within, never running dry. Good Lord, could she use some of that kind of water!
When she asked him for it, how she could have some of that kind of water, however, he instructed her to go get her husband. He was an enigma! How dare he?! But again, the woman bit her tongue. It was as if he knew her. She cringed. “I am not married. I have no husband.” It was like he could see through her, as if a scope bore into her very soul. “Ahhh,” he replied. “Tis true. But you are living with a man after many marriages, yes?”
She hung her head, a triage of memories passing swiftly through her mind. The emptiness inside she’d always tried to fill with relationship, hoping to create something forever and lasting. Family, many called it. Every single stinking time it blew up, ended in mass carnage of her hopes and dreams. She had been through busted relationships so frequently now, she was numb; she had nothing left to give, no promise to utter. But this man…this man looked at her as if he could see through her, as if he knew her and had always known her, as if he loved her anyway, like she had never been seen or known or loved before. All the hollow places inside suddenly were drowning in a peace she had never felt before, all the holes filling up within and overflowing. Suddenly she wanted everyone to come see this man, to experience the feeling—and the filling—of this living water of which he had promised. Never again would she experience emptiness and aloneness that she’d try to fill with the things of this world. As long as she lives, she knows with certainty, nothing else would ever satisfy. She is SOUL’d out!
Psalm 107:9, ‘For He satisfies the longing soul, and fills the hungry soul with goodness.’ (NKJV)
Psalms 42:11, ‘Why are you down in the dumps, dear soul? Why are you crying the blues? Fix my eyes on God—soon I’ll be praising again. He puts a smile on my face. He is my God.’ (MSG)
