Monday, June 8, 2009

Stepping Stones: What Fills Your Heart?

Transformational Tip
A friend and Christian counselor and close friend once shared with me a very powerful analogy: He said that we are all born with this vacuum tube in our core. It is empty and by the very nature of being under a vacuum (negative pressure), it has the constant need to be filled. That vacuum tube, that "void" was always intended to be filled with Jesus Christ and His Holy Spirit. But if we don't fill it with Him, junk gets sucked into the vacuum tube...and once filled with junk, there is no room for our Lord and Savior. We continue to feel empty and incomplete, so we continue letting junk be sucked into our vacuum tube.
Until we fill ourselves with Him, and live close to Him, we will continue to feel empty and incomplete. What have you let get sucked into your core and let be your savior? Is it really saving you?...or just contributing to your slow demise? That impersonator, giving false hope, is Satan's answer for your needs...to be important...loved...in control... secure...loved....appreciated...valued....included...unique....pretty....__________. Relying on these things to save you will eventually cripple you. Dump the junk out of that tube today and let your natural vacuum pull in God to fill you up with his loving grace and mercy...for only then will you feel complete...only then will you truly be who He designed you to be.

Prayer
Dear Father,
I often feel incomplete, as if some very important part of me is missing. When I get this feeling I many times respond in unproductive and even sinful ways; foraging for food, fantasy, entertainment, and prideful recognition. All the while You are with me, patiently waiting for me to let You in. When I continue to go my own way, seeking satisfaction where there is none, I become increasingly frustrated. This agitated condition makes it harder and harder to turn back to You, the only one that can complete me. I cry out to You today, I cry out, "Help me Jesus!"
I pray this in Jesus' cleansing name - AMEN

The Truth
Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
James 1:4
Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you.
James 4:7
By the Holy Spirit who dwells within us, guard the good deposit entrusted to you.
2 Timothy 1:14
Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.
Psalm 51:10-12