As we continue our new series on Emptying Our Way to Fullness, we see that in the process of teaching us things we need to know, often God’s first inclination is to point out characteristics about Himself that help us understand and apply the principles involved. So, in dealing with terms like “emptiness” and “fullness,” there’s a lot we can learn from the nature of the One who created a world that allows meaning and purpose for those concepts. So, let’s have a look at a characteristic of God’s nature that benefits every one of us. 

Not a Lover of Empty Things ~
One of the things God made obvious about Himself in the very beginning is that He loves abundance. He is neither stingy, miserly, nor selfish. That God loves filling up empty spaces was obvious in the creation process. When He looked at the vast, black emptiness of space encompassing our world, He wasn’t content to counter the night sky with a couple of prominent lights. He threw in innumerable galaxies filled with millions of stars, planets, asteroids, and other ‘mind-blowing’ creations. And for Him, leaving all those oceans sitting empty and all that atmosphere just sitting there with nothing but clouds in it … well, that was intolerable, so He said: 

…Let the waters abound [literally, be teeming with] with an abundance of living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens.”  So God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.  And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” (Genesis 1:20–22 NKJV)

The array of creatures God designed to live and thrive in every kind of environment on this planet is mind boggling. And before sin invaded and threw everything into a chaotic, violent, oppositional mess, this world and its amazing array of creatures lived in harmony and balance. They had an incredibly diverse set of needs, but the God who loves abundance saw to it that there was “enough.” That state of harmony and satisfaction lasted until the devil slithered in and suggested to Eve that although God had given them free and unlimited access to every fruit of every tree in the Garden, He had not given them quite “enough”. Thus began what would become a recurrent, self-destructive practice among God’s people. In defiance of His abundant provision, the enemy would foster a sense of dissatisfaction and lead them to indict God for failing to provide “enough” of what they wanted.

Addicted to Dissatisfaction ~
Much, much later, as God’s newly redeemed, covenant people were in the wilderness of Sinai learning what freedom and redemption brought with it, finding new items to add to their list of things to be dissatisfied about was easy. There was an almost endless array of things to complain about, but food and water topped the list. The fact that they got hungry and thirsty meant that either God or His representatives, or both, had failed. They had not provided “enough” and dissatisfaction led them to explore potential alternatives, like going back to Egypt, or checking out another one of the many gods they learned about in their former environment. They began to whine and cry and declare things like this:

… Oh, that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the pots of meat and when we ate bread to the full! For you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” (Exodus 16:3 NKJV)

Later, one of God’s Psalmists reflected on the incident like this: 

And they tested God in their heart
By asking for [demanding] the food of their fancy. (Psalm 78:18 NKJV)

A Response They Didn’t Expect ~
That’s what dissatisfaction with God’s provision, His leadership, and/or His love for us, is capable of doing. When we conclude that He hasn’t provided enough, we are effectively accusing Him of failure – and essentially testing His love and power to do what He says He can do. God’s reaction to their complaints and accusations was a unique kind of provision that became a test of its own. He gave them rivers of water out of solid rock and a free and abundant supply of food – and all they had to do was pick it up. 

God’s miraculous and abundant provision was enough for everybody. There was sufficient nourishment for everyone every day, and no one went hungry. Moses reported it like this:

So when they measured it by omers, he who gathered much had nothing left over, and he who gathered little had no lack. Every man had gathered according to each one’s need. (Exodus 16:18 NKJV) 

But as we all know, eventually they got tired of it, and dissatisfaction slithered in again. And as before, there was more complaining and fresh suggestions that their leadership had failed. This time it sounded like this:  

Now the mixed multitude who were among them yielded to intense craving; so the children of Israel also wept again and said: “Who will give us meat to eat?  We remember the fish which we ate freely in Egypt, the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, and the garlic;  but now our whole being is dried up; there is nothing at all except this manna before our eyes!” (Numbers 11:4–6 NKJV)

Not Necessarily Evil ~
Episodes like this are replete with lessons that are compelling, even in a culture that’s half a world away and removed by thousands of years. All of us have a personal history of interactions with our two old friends … dissatisfaction and enough. And though we’ve seen what can happen with them when the enemy points them in the wrong direction, we must hasten to their defense. Neither term in and of itself is inherently evil. Pointed in the right direction and applied in the ways God intended, a sense of dissatisfaction or an awareness that there isn’t enough can be a priceless gift… 

Without them, ambition would disappear, improvements would no longer be sought, new versions of anything would never be invented, new procedures wouldn’t be developed, searching for refinements wouldn’t even be considered, and words like “better” would lack a functional definition. Our flawed and imperfect bodies and minds need more improvements than we can imagine. In our sin-cursed, deficit-ridden culture, we need better ways of doing almost everything. The problem is that we let dissatisfaction slither in and accuse our loving Father of failure and, instead, apply our own definition of enough in places it should never be allowed.  Here’s an example or two of how it works:

• • • We compare ourselves to others and become dissatisfied with the way God made us look.
    • We look at the talents others have and feel slighted or totally ignored in that area.
    • We see how others live who have more money and feel bound and oppressed because we have so much less than they do.
    • We look at those who have so many more social media followers than we could ever have and feel isolated, lonely, and depressed because we don’t. 
    • We see how differently those who are smarter, stronger, prettier, and who have better hair are treated and feel left out.   
    • Then we begin to look for alternative ways to obtain those things or compensate for not having them. 

Every moment of every day, the airwaves are filled with voices telling us that we need something we don’t have, that we’re missing out, and that we should do whatever it takes to satisfy our desires, to get enough. In response, the risen Son of God quietly reaches out His nail-scarred hand and proves once again that when it comes to what we need to find that fulfillment we seek, He has given us enough already. 

And because He has, may our coming year be marked by inexhaustible praise, invincible joy, unassailable hope, and an insatiable desire to share what He has given us with those dissatisfied, searching, empty souls around us.

__________________________

For next week … We mentioned earlier that God seems to love filling up empty spaces. We’d be blessed to have you join us as we have a look at what His objective is, especially when the empty space that needs to be filled is inside ‘us’.

“TWEETABLES” ~ Click to Tweet & Share from the pull quotes below. Each quote links directly to this article through Twitter.

• • • That state of harmony and satisfaction lasted until the devil slithered in and suggested to Eve that although God had given them free and unlimited access to every fruit of every tree in the Garden, He had not given them quite “enough”. @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet) 
    • Thus began what would become a recurrent, self-destructive practice among God’s people. In defiance of His abundant provision, the enemy would foster a sense of dissatisfaction and lead them to indict God for failing to provide “enough” of what they wanted. @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
    • When we conclude that God hasn’t provided enough, we are effectively accusing Him of failure – and essentially testing His love and power to do what He says He can do. His reaction was a unique kind of provision that became a test of its own. @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)
    • The risen Son of God quietly reaches out His nail-scarred hand and proves once again that when it comes to what we need to find the fulfillment we seek, He has given us enough already. @GallaghersPen (Click here to Tweet)

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