Posted:
Based on “The Urge to Purge” by Pastor Dave Folkerts; 7/18-19/09,
Message #DF141; Daily Devotional #3 - “Empty Hands”
Preparing the Soil (Introduction): The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise. (Psalm 51:17) “God gives His gifts where He finds the vessel empty enough to receive them.” C. S. Lewis “St Augustine says, ‘God gives where He finds empty hands.’ A man whose hands are full of parcels can’t receive a gift.” C. S. Lewis
Planting and Watering the Seed (Growth): We thrive on filling our lives with things. Take a brief moment to reflect on the objects you have in your pocket, your purse, your car, or your home. Can you remember everything? We like stuff. And while there’s nothing wrong with having things, we must ask ourselves, do we own our material possessions or do our material possessions own us? Sometimes we allow the pursuit of belongings to interfere in our pursuit of God. After all, what might He require us to give up if we submit to Him wholeheartedly? That thought goes back to the Garden of Eden where Satan tempted Eve with the belief that God was holding out on her by not giving permission to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Eve’s wrong belief cost her (and us) everything. God is not holding out on us. Actually it is quite the opposite. God has only good for us, but He knows in order for us to receive that good, sometimes we must forsake those things which separate us from Him.
Harvesting the Crop (Action/Response): Before God can fill our lives with the good He desires, we must first be broken. At first glance, that doesn’t sound like a desirable thing to happen. Broken of what, you may ask: broken of anything that takes God’s rightful primary place in our lives. It may be pride, thinking we can do life on our own and be just fine. It may be some seemingly secret sin that’s not so secret to God. It may be actual material objects we value more than knowing and obeying God. We need to ask God what He wants to break off from our lives. God never commands us to do something without giving us the power to do it. So ask. With our empty hands, God will be able to fill us with that which will last for all eternity.
Cultivating (Additional Reading): Psalm 51; Psalm 119:11; Psalm 107:9; Psalm 16:11
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